Pancakes

Simple, soft, fluffy pancakes, an essential that everyone should know. You’ve been good all week. Go on. You deserve these for brekki tomorrow!

Pancakes shouldn’t be complicated. It doesn’t matter if they come out wonky or with a splotchy surface instead of being a beautiful, even golden brown – after all, they’ll get smothered in toppings.

But they should be soft and fluffy. And in my world, not too sweet. Because….you know. Toppings. Load up on toppings!

STANDBY PANCAKE MIX!

Pancakes aren’t complicated to make, even from scratch, but sometimes it’s that much more appealing if there’s a ready made mix in the cupboard, just like the ones you can buy at the store!

Just measure out the dry ingredients and pop them in a ziplock bag, jar or airtight container, then when you want to make fresh pancakes, just add the wet ingredients!

To make a handy shake ‘n pour bottle like pictured below, you’ll need a 1.5L/1.5Qt+ bottle to leave enough headroom for the required liquids + shaking. I mix the wet ingredients in a jug then pour it in then shake away!

There are many pancake recipes in this world, and this one is a fuss free one that you can make with pantry essentials. It’s made with just flour, baking powder (or self raising flour), sugar, milk, eggs and vanilla. No buttermilk, no baking soda / bi carb, no yoghurt. I know you can make “better” ones that are ultra thick, but this is my go-to that I make 99% of the time because it’s simple, I always have the ingredients, it’s soft and fluffy enough for me (too thick gets a bit much, in my opinion).

Some will come out beautifully golden, like you see in the photos above. Some will come out splotchy. It doesn’t matter! See? Can’t even tell what colour these pancakes are…..↓↓↓  – Nagi xx

PS Food styling tip: A very observant reader commented that the maple syrup doesn’t look like maple syrup and he is half right! It is actually maple syrup but I placed it in the freezer to thicken (it doesn’t freeze hard) so it would form nice thick drips down the side of the pancakes and sit on the surface of the top pancake. It’s a food styling trick! If I used normal room temperature maple syrup, it is much thinner so I would not get those drips and it sinks almost instantly into the surface of the pancake. 🙂 I once tried honey but the colour isn’t deep enough, and golden syrup is too dark.

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

Simple Fluffy Pancakes recipe video!

4.97 from 29 votes

Print

Simple, Fluffy Pancakes

Prep

5 mins

Cook

15 mins

Total

20 mins

 

Simple, fluffy pancakes made from scratch, an essential that everyone should know! These are soft and fluffy, easy to make, and not too sweet so you can go wild with toppings. The key is getting the batter consistency right so it is easy to spread but doesn't spread too thinly so you get nice fluffy pancakes. Recipe video below, and topping suggestions below.

Servings: 13 pancakes

Calories: 108 kcal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

• 2 cups / 300g plain / all purpose flour (Note 1)
• 4 tsp baking powder (Note 1)
• 1/4 cup / 55g white sugar (caster / super fine is best but not essential)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cups / 435 ml cups milk (any type, any fat %)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
• 4 tsp butter , for cooking

Instructions

1. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl, whisk to combine.
2. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Whisk until lump free - no longer than 30 seconds.
3. Heat a non stick skillet - use medium heat if you have a strong stove, medium high if you have a weak one. Add a tiny bit of butter (about 1/2 tsp) and swirl to melt. Use paper towel to mostly wipe the butter off (this is the trick to avoid a dodgy 1st pancake).
4. Pour 1/4 cup batter into the middle of the fry pan (I use a slightly heaped ice cream scoop with lever, standard is 1/4 cup).
5. Swirl pan lightly to spread or use the ice cream scoop edge to spread into 11cm / 4.5" circle (ruler is a must) (joking!).
6. When bubbles rise to the surface (see video), flip and cook the other side until golden.
7. Remove and keep warm in a low oven.
8. Use more butter every 2 to 3 pancakes - depends how good your non stick coating is.
9. Serve with toppings of choice!

Notes

1. Flour: The flour and baking powder can be replaced with 2 cups + 1 tbsp self raising flour. The flour can also be substituted with whole wheat flour.

2. STOVE TEMP: The trick with pancakes is getting the stove temp perfect - it should take 30 seconds for the bubbles to appear then 30 - 45 seconds on the other side until golden, 1 minute per pancake. So adjust as you cook, and if you're impatient like me, get 2 pans going at the same time!

3. Some TOPPINGS: Butter, maple syrup, fruit sauces, jam, cream, lemon juice + sugar (this is terrific), bacon + maple syrup (heart attack risk is worth it), yoghurt, macerated strawberries (1 cup chopped strawberries tossed with 1 tbsp white sugar, leave for 10 minutes = strawberries in red juice, see photo in post).

4. PRE-MADE PANCAKE MIX: Place the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a ziplock bag, large jar or bottle. Then add the egg, vanilla and milk when you want to  make up a batch of pancakes! If you want to be able to add the liquids into the jar or bottle then pour the batter straight into the pan, it will need to be 1.5L/1.5Qt or greater. The bottled pictured in post is a 2 litre milk carton (only dry ingredients are in it). 

Click here for printable instruction labels (nothing fancy but does the job!).

5. Nutrition per pancake assuming only half the butter is consumed (because most is wiped off), excluding toppings because I cannot be held responsible for how much you load up your pancakes! And yes, this recipe makes 13 pancakes. Because it's just how my recipes seem to go - always a weird number.

LIFE OF DOZER

I’m surprised there isn’t a massive drool hanging from his mouth.

Oh wait. I don’t want to gross you out, but after I wrote this post, I almost slipped on a puddle of drool when I was cleaning that area. Ewwwwww!