The buttermilk pancake rules as king over all other pancakes and today I will prove it to you. Not only are these pancakes easy to make, they will put all pancake mixes out of business, and will amaze even the most cake shocked veteran. Ok I know, I am talking up my pancakes quite a bit here, but you have to understand, I just figured out pancakes. I mean, for the first time in my life I made what I consider to be a perfect pancake…from scratch.
Why make it from scratch? Because only silly people pay someone to mix four ingredients together, let it sit and get stale in a box, and then claim it is the best way to make pancakes. Don’t fall for it! They are just mixing flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; then charging you a three times as much!
I remember making pancakes as a little kid, and I remember my dad telling me some very important pancake advice that I for some reason forgot when I started making rubber pancakes my first year of college. But, after many failed attempts and wasted syrup, I have come back home with some pancakes that rock. All the knowledge I have gained along the way follows, and I hope that it helps you create something magical in the morning.
First, lets get our food stuffs together:
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 dashes of cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 3 cups buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 5 tablespoons melted butter (plus a little for our pan)
- Splash of lemon
Next we want to heat our skillet.
What to cook pancakes on…
The surface you cook your pancakes on makes a huge difference on how your final pancake will turn out. That is why pancakes from places like The Ol’ South Pancake House have a different texture and consistency than when you make them at home in a frying pan. They use a large flat griddle that cooks the pancakes evenly while giving them room to do their thing. This is hard to accomplish in the home kitchen because most stoves and pans just don’t have the heat distribution of the electric griddle.
So your best bet is something like Presto 07045 Family-Size Cool-Touch Tilt’N Drain Electric Griddle
Second best is a stove top griddle, but we want to look for something that holds heat well, so we don’t experience any changes in temperature, and something nice and flat. Non-stick is a must in this situation. You can use enough butter to keep your cakes from sticking, but going light on the butter will make for fluffier pancakes. Using a lot of butter will add a crisp to your pancake top and bottom, and while good for some applications, I prefer the fluffy.
Make our Mix
The great thing about pancake mix is that it stores well. If you wanted to x10 the recipe and store it for future use, you could do so saving yourself a step in the future and making morning pancakes easy as pie. Just used 4 cups of your mix and skip the next step.
To make my mix I simple combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl with a lid. Then I give it a good shake to make sure all my ingredients are mixed together well. This also sifts the ingredients a bit, fluffing the whole thing up with a little air.
Making our Batter
Once we have our dry ingredients, form a little crater in the middle to hold all our liquids. Add in all the liquids and prepare to stir. When it comes to pancakes, less stirring is more. Over stirring your batter makes for tough pancakes. We just want to stir well enough to combine our ingredients, about 10 or 12 seconds. There will be lumps in our batter, and this is just what we want. These lumps will vanish once we start cooking, and by not stirring to much our pancakes will be nice a fluffy.
Time to Cook!
Before we start ladling our batter we want to check out griddle and make sure it is the right temperature. Get your hand wet and sprinkle a few drops of water on the surface. If you see the water do a little dance across the surface, your temperature is just right and ready for pancakes.
Take a small piece of butter and throw it on the griddle, making sure the entire surface is covered. Then ladle about 1/3 cup pancake batter onto the surface. Try to use a smooth motion so you don’t pop the bubbles forming in our batter, and by slowly pouring the batter out, you end up with a more evenly cooked pancake.
Once you see bubbles on the top of the pancake, you are getting close. As soon as those bubbles start to pop, slip a spatula under your cake and give it a flip. Cook the pancake for the same amount of time on the other site, and set aside covered by towels to keep warm.
Final Touches
Once your pancakes are cooked, add syrup, butter, and a side of bacon and you are on your way to pancake heaven. Other variations of this recipe include adding fruit. If you are a fruit lover, there is nothing better than a blueberry pancake. Hey, even strawberries are pretty good for those of you who don’t do the blue.
I hope you enjoy these pancakes…what do you think?
I run this jazz food fest. 
