The Best Pancakes Ever
My grandmother passed away last weekend. I thought I could rely on my years as a military wife to compartmentalize and soldier on. I was wrong. I sent out an email to some of my blogging friends requesting guest posts and have been overwhelmed by their support. Although I am grieving, I feel incredibly blessed to be apart of this wonderful community.
The following post is from Melissa at Frugal Creativity. She is a Christian wife and mom who likes cooking, baking, reading, gardening, and sharing the ways that God is working in her life.
I have to laugh when I read restaurant reviews that say, “…but you can’t really mess up pancakes!” Obviously they haven’t tried my pancakes!
I’ve been cooking for more years than I’d like to count, and I usually do okay with it. But for all these years, a good recipe for pancakes has eluded me. I’ve tried different recipes and every one of them has turned out wrong. They’re raw in the middle, burned on the outside, too dense, just flat, or whatever. The sourdough pancakes were the worst! (“Mom, are you sure these are supposed to be pancakes?”)
That all changed on Valentine’s Day. My 13-year-old son, Mooseman, encouraged me to relax, because he was making breakfast.
He served me a stack of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Seriously.
He’d Googled “pancake recipe” and–by sheer luck?–chosen this one:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt [omitted]
1 tablespoon white sugar [he used vanilla sugar]
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons [salted] butter, melted
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
This recipe made 12 perfect pancakes.
After breakfast I compared this recipe with the one that I usually use. The biggest difference is the sifting of the dry ingredients. In any case, this is our new pancake recipe!
Do you have any dishes that you just can’t seem to get right?
This post is linked to Sunday Mornings.
pancakes do take practice!
Is this recipe missing the flour or am I just blind? Haha!
Thank you! I must have lost it when transferring the file. I thought about adding it and then telling you to have your vision checked.
Thanks for having me, Alea!
It sounds to me like a temperature and technique issue. I have had trouble with pancakes as well. I have learned that the temp of my griddle has to be just right, medium high, when water dances off of it, and that you can't over mix your batter, like with muffins, it is a quick bread. Also, don't wait until all the bubbles are popped, just until your sides are dry to flip. Hope this helps.
Thank you Melissa for sharing your recipe and the sweet story of your son. Moooseman is definitely a blessing! My husband is our resident pancake maker; I will share your sifting tip with him.
Hi Alea! I am so sorry for the loss of your grandmother. My grandmother passed away in early February, and I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. She was my first grandparent to pass away and it seems so unbelievable.
Anyway, I just read your baby step over at A Moderate Life and I love it! I love that it is from your grandma, and I love that such a simple shift in the way you respond to them changes everything.
Thanks for sharing!!