The breakfast of champions: preferably in a thick stack, with syrup
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As you know, your Orange Baker is Dutch. 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 jam is a fixed breakfast option in the Orange Baker household.
Updated 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.
your Orange baker
The International Selection of Pancakes.
The Dutch pancakes can be plain, sweet or savory. They’re the size of the largest plate in your house, but you’ll have a few, and likely, a few too many. In my house, growing up, it was my father’s job to bake them, and I am carrying on with that tradition. And of course, there’s crepes.When you bake a sweet of savory pancake, you can bake ingredients with the pancake batter. Fruit, for the sweet one, or chocolate chips. Top it with syrup, powdered sugar, Nutella or jam, and the savory one, cheese, bacon, ham, onions, mushroom, everything you can imagine. Obviously, we have a recipe on this site. Find the delicious treat here. The French have their crepes, which resemble the Dutch pancakes, with a wet, runny batter, but they are much thinner. You fill them after you bake them.
The U.S. style pancakes, as I like to call them (my apologies for the other countries that have equal rights to call them their own) – are thick, airy and small. Yet, you will find that these will more easily fill you up. They’re hearty. The batter contains melted butter, eggs and baking powder. The baking powder makes them fluffy.The right tools.
For the baking, the right tools are important. First of all, moderate the heat of the pan, so play with the flame of your stove. Even though the first pancake may come out good on medium-high heat, but the following bakes will turn out black on the inside and (slightly) under-cooked on the inside. So, medium heat, and you’ll likely lower the heat as you work your way through the batter.
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.