American-style thick and airy Pancakes
The breakfast of champions: preferably in a thick stack, with syrup
As you know, your Orange Baker is Dutch-American. From the Dutch side, we pride ourselves on having amazing sweet and savory pancakes. On my trips to the USA, and even more so, when I moved here, I got introduced to the American-style pancakes. The fluffy, thick and airy pancakes make for a solid breakfast. A bit of butter and a little bit of or syrup jam is a fixed breakfast option in the Orange Baker household.
Jump to RecipeUpdated Recipe – I have found that increasing the amount of baking powder by as little as 2 grams, to 10 grams, creates fluffier pancakes without affecting the flavor. The recipe below uses the new, improved amounts.
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American-style Pancakes
Ingredients
- 300 milliliters milk
- 185 grams all-purpose flour
- 50 grams melted butter
- 25 grams sugar
- 10 grams baking powder
- 6 grams salt
- 1 egg
- butter or oil for baking
Instructions
Utensils
- 2 large bowls
- Handmixer
- Whisk or silicone bowl scraper/spatula
- Soup ladle
- Large frying pan
- Thin, large spatula
Preparation
- Using the mixer, beat the egg and milk in one of the bowls until it is bubbly and airy. Stir in the melted butter.
- In the second bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Make sure all ingredients are evenly mixed.
- Quickly and very, very gently add and mix the milk-egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Use the whisk, or better yet, use the silicone bowl scraper: fold the flour into the milk. You do not have to worry about the lumps, they will dissolve when you bake. Leave the batter for 10-15 minutes. It will get thicker.
- Heat a pan on the stove and grease with butter.
Baking
- Pour a ladle of batter on the pan. As opposed to the Dutch pancakes, do not tilt and turn to cover all of the pan: you want to have small pancakes. The closer you are to the pan when pouring the better: if you pour from a height, the bubbles will break, and that would be a shame.
- After about 2 minutes, or until the bubbles on the top start popping, use the spatula and turn once – and only once. If the pancake is too brown, lower the heat. The other side will need between 1,5 and 2 minutes.
- In order to get the beautiful griddle marks on the pancakes, you'll need some temperature. Any butter left in the pan will inevitably turn brown. Use a paper towel and clean the pan as well as you can without burning your hands. Add a little knob of butter and repeat.
- These, you need to serve immediately. Make a stack, and drizzle with syrup for the true, American way of eating.
Tips & Tricks
- They freeze well, for a snack or a quick and tasty kid's school lunch.
- Add chocolate chips, blueberries or even sliced banana for variation.
- For baking, I found that butter works best. Olive oil affects the flavor and canola oil (apart from not being the most healthy option) will start to smell when it gets too hot.
- You can bake without oil or butter in a hot non-stick pan, but you'll miss the griddle marks and the crunchy edges.