Do you feel like your pancakes are looking more like road cakes? Flat, dense, and a million miles away from anything edible, it’s easy to make bad-tasting pancakes. Well, there’s certainly a way to get your dream breakfast treat, and it’s easier than you think because the best pancakes require less effort than you think.
Being lazy is the simple key to great fluffy pancakes – sounds too good to be true, right? The school of thought is that if you overmix your batter you’ll make it tough, and while that sounds plausible, that’s not the real reason why pancakes come out rubbery. That tough, dense texture is the result of not enough air in the batter, and it’s that air that gives the batter its light airy texture.
To get those heavenly, cloud-like pancakes, don’t overmix your batter, in fact, lumps of butter and flour are A-okay. In every other situation, lumps are a red flag and will lead to a baking failure, but that’s not the case with pancakes, these lumps will provide much-needed structure to the pancake batter, as it prevents the batter from over-spreading.
If you think a lump of flour will taste just like a lump of raw flour, think again because this second tip will create the desired texture. Letting the batter rest does two things – it allows the leavening agents to activate, creating air pockets, and it hydrates the clumps of flour with the wet ingredients, removing any of that raw flour taste. A rest of ten minutes is just enough time, during which you can prepare other breakfast sides and do some quick sink duties.
Barely mix, rest, and flip those flapjacks– who said cooking had to be intense or scientific?
