Hello Friends!

Growing up, this was the recipe for pancakes:

• 2 cups Bisquick^TM
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk

Oh yeah, they were good!  Well, maybe that’s the pancake syrup talking.  My parents didn’t buy any sugary cereal so this was the one chance to get a sugar rush first thing in the morning.

It should go without saying that American pancakes are not what most of the world considers a pancake.  For most of the world, a “pancake” is, depending on one’s language, a: crêpe, crespo, блин (blin), uttapam, etc.  There are as many styles of pancakes as countries, maybe more.  American pancakes are similar to some other countries’ breakfast disks: Canada basically has the same pancake that we do.  Australia too.  In Scotland, they have something called a “drop scone” – which actually is a pretty accurate name once you realize that a “scone” is basically a sweet version of what Americans call a “biscuit” (a word that in the rest of the world pretty much exclusively means a cookie).

The American pancake is based on one crucial ingredient which, strangely enough, is usually totally absent from American refrigerators: buttermilk.  While there is an acceptable substitute discussed below, real buttermilk is essential to getting your pancakes to be sufficiently fluffy and not flat like, well, a crespo.

What on earth is buttermilk and why does it work wonders?  Buttermilk is basically just a cultured milk, a pre-yogurt if you will.  It has no butter in it whatsoever – its name comes from the old way of making it, which was to save the residue from cultured butter.  Nowadays, they just add bacterial culture to milk and sell you that as buttermilk.  Like yogurt, buttermilk is sour – in other words, it is an acid (while milk is normally basic).  This matters because you use baking soda and baking powder for leavening and… well, remember the kids’ experiment where you add baking soda to vinegar and get a foaming volcano?  The same thing happens (on a smaller, more delicious scale) when you add buttermilk and baking soda to a batter – you get quick leavening supercharged!

Another trick with American pancakes is getting the cook right.  I don’t know if there is a “première crêpe” rule in France, but we definitely have a “first pancake” rule in the U.S. – The first pancake is usually a mess because it’s very hard to get the heat of the griddle right at first.  There is also the dilemma of whether to use oil or butter to cook.  I’m going to blow your mind now – use BOTH.

The final trick with regard to pancakes is – do NOT overmix the batter.  Wheat flour has gluten in it, which is wonderful for bread but the bitter enemy of a soft pancake.  This is why we mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before adding them together and mixing that until it is just combined.  I like it pretty runny like this:

This recipe is adapted from L.V. Anderson’s recipe in Slate’s “You’re Doing It Wrong” series – share and enjoy!

Ingredients: (makes about 12 small pancakes, enough for 2-3 people)

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour, or ½ cup more all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk (or substitute, see below)
• 2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil, plus more for cooking
• Butter and maple syrup (duh)

Instructions:

1. Sift the flour into a medium bowl and add the other dry ingredients (sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda).
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg then add the buttermilk and oil and stir well.
3. Add the flour mix into the buttermilk and stir until just combined. Then let it rest a few minutes.
4. Heat your griddle over medium heat. After 5 minutes, add a pat of butter and a tablespoon of the oil.  Tilt griddle so fat is evenly distributed.
5. Add the batter in ¼ cup circles and do not let them touch. Cook for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown.
6. Add more butter and oil in between batches.
7. Serve hot with butter and syrup of your choice.

Tips and tricks:

• For a substitute buttermilk, take one cup regular milk and add one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice, and let it sit for ten minutes. It should thicken and curdle slightly.  That’s a good thing!  Here is a full recipe.
• Knowing when to flip is the hard part. I usually look for bubbles and a slight hardening of the edges.
• Adding a little oil to the butter for cooking will retard the butter from burning and turning your pancakes a darker color than may be desirable (see photos below for the difference).