July 4, 2007 - 6:22am
Pancakes
Pancakes like bread require flour, water, salt, and a leavener.
1) Does anyone have a recipe for Fluffy Pancakes? I use the following but am interested in anything better.
Fluffy Pancakes
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 Tablespoons of sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs (separate yolks from whites; beat separately; fold in whites last of all)
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 1/4 cup oil
- add blue berries, etc. as desired
2) Does anyone know when I am supposed to add baking soda? Some recipes call for baking powder and baking soda.
Thanks.
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This is the recipe my mom used and I use now. It comes from Beard's 1972 "American Cookery" cookbook.
2 C All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 C Buttermilk
3 Eggs, separated
1/4 C melted Butter
Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Stir in the buttermilk and well beaten egg yolks. Add the butter and beat until smooth. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff, but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the batter very gently. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto a hot griddle and eat up!
This has been my all time favorite pancake recipe.
Can you explain the difference to a beginner between folding egg whites in regularly as opposed to very gently? Just how do I do that?
CountryBoy, the idea with folding is to not break the air bubbles whipped in the egg whites--so really there shouldn't be much difference between 'regular' and 'very gentle' folding--you never want to cancel the lightening effect of the beaten whites with rough handling. So it might help if you just keep those little bubbles in mind, and make every effort in your folding, to protect them.
If you note, in the two recipes posted, yours has no acidic liquid and calls for baking powder, while TinGull's has all that buttermilk, and uses soda. That's a typical usage scheme. Or did you mean when do you actually add the leavening to the mix..? In which case it joins the dry ingredients. Old recipes call for baking soda to be dissolved in hot water first, but modern processing eliminates the need for that.
Folding very gently just means to be as careful as you can be with those little bubbles in the whites.
Thanks for the guidance folks.
A clarification of my question is: in what recipes does one use
Some people on this forum are actual food chemists but I am not- and they both look pretty white to me.
I will as directed:
http://kitchensavvy.typepad.com/journal/2005/01/baking_soda_vs_.html
This is a great explanation of the two and when they should and shouldn't be used.
Tingull, many thanks for the web link. In reading further on the site I saw the following test that some one ran on pancakes using both the soda and powder:
"The results appeared as follows:
Baking Soda-.... Average Diameter 81.3........... Aver. Height 15.3
Baking Powder-..Average Diameter 83.7 mm......Aver. Height 14.3
So, contrary to the sources mentioned, the baking soda pancakes rose slightly higher while the baking powder pancakes spread slightly more. I expect that a larger test than the simple one I did in my kitchen would show that the small differences which I found are not significant."
Recently I played around with my generic pancake recipe, but I used half cake flour. It makes for a real fluffy batter, you need to bake it at a slightly lower temp so it cooks all the way through before the outside browns too much. I haven't tried all cake flour yet.
I think fooling around is a major source of joy for everyone in all this baking.
I wonder if anyone has ever used a very carefully balanced poolish of flour and yeast that they put in the fridge the night before. That way the pancakes might have a bit more taste.
But maybe that would be a bit too daring ....
yeasted pancakes have probably been around longer than baking powder / soda pancakes!
I use the recipe on the bob's red mill website, but you might want to use less yeast as it rises super fast.
Or, you can further reduce the yeast, mix all ingredients together, and let rise in the fridge overnight.
I find yeasted pancakes more chewy and "substantial" tasting than "regular" pancakes. Happy pancake eating!!
Yes, I think I will let the yeast and mix overnight in the fridge.
are tastier and healthier than chemically-leavened cakes, but may not be as light. They are a great place for sourdough starter discarded during refreshment. In her Whole Grain Baking book, Greene recommends at least 50% hard wheat flour when making yeast pancakes. Here’s my latest recipe, which uses a triple leaven: sourdough, baker’s yeast, and a little soda.
4.25 oz hard whole wheat levain at 100% hydration *
¼ cup hard whole wheat flour
½ cup buckwheat or whole wheat pastry or corn flour
½ tsp diastatic malt
¼ cup powdered buttermilk
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp oil
2 tsp molasses
½ tsp active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
¾ cup room-temp water
Berries and walnut pieces
½ tsp baking soda
* The levain is approximately equal to a half cup of flour and a quarter cup of water.
The night before, hydrate yeast and mix all ingredients, except baking soda and a small portion of berries/walnuts. During cold weather, leave on counter overnight. In warm weather, double the yeast, let sit for 30 minutes, then refrigerate. In morning, warm batter in a bain-marie, if necessary. 15-20 minutes before cooking, add the soda, taking care not to over-mix. Add the remaining adjuncts to last portion of batter. Best cooked on very hot cast iron.