In today’s post: These fluffy pancakes are easy to make with pantry staples and they taste absolutely amazing!
Pancakes are a much loved food in our home. We have them regularly for both breakfast and dinner (add some scrambled eggs and fruit and you have a pretty great meal!). I always have the ingredients for pancakes on hand and they are so easy to mix up – and if you have a bunch of hungry teenagers like I do you can feed everyone for pennies!
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Now, for many many years I made pancakes from a boxed mix. It’s hard to beat the convenience of just stirring water into a mix…
…but it turns out that homemade pancakes only take about 5 minutes to make and they taste SO MUCH BETTER! And don’t worry, you won’t need any unusual ingredients for these, just your pantry basics:
- flour
- sugar
- salt
- baking powder
- milk
- egg
- butter
You don’t even need buttermilk! And there’s nothing difficult about mixing it up either. These pancakes are basically foolproof. Plus they’re FLUFFY!
How to make Fluffy Pancakes from scratch
Want to see them fluff? Just watch my video below to see them actually fluff up on the griddle. Then keep reading for the recipe and all my pancake making tips.
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Fluffy Pancake Recipe
Please note that the recipe below makes fifteen 4 inch pancakes or seven or eight 6 inch pancakes. The recipe can easily be doubled or triple (or more!) depending on how many people you are feeding. For my family of 7 we always double the recipe, even if serving with eggs and fruit.
Fluffy Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups milk
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp butter melted
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Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
- Whisk in milk and egg until combined. Then whisk in butter. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
- Allow batter to rest about 10 minutes. Batter will thicken slightly. Meanwhile, heat griddle to 350 degrees F.
- Pour out pancakes, 1/4 cup of batter each, on a hot griddle. Allow to cook until bubbles appear on the top and edges start to look dry, about 2-3 minutes.
- Flip pancakes and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden brown on both sides. Remove from griddle and serve hot.
Tips
Tips for making Perfect Pancakes
Ok, pancakes are pretty darn simple, but there are some things that will ensure they turn out perfect every time.
Mix ingredients in this order: whisk together the dry ingredients first, then stir in the milk and egg, then stir in the melted butter. If you try to stir in the melted butter and milk in one step the cold milk can chill the butter in tiny pieces, which won’t mix into the batter evenly. And don’t mix too much – it’s totally fine for the batter to look a little lumpy.
If your batter seems too thick, add more milk. If your flour is packed down, you may end up with a batter that is too thick. But don’t worry – just add a little more milk until it’s the same consistency you see in my video.
Allow the batter to rest about 10 minutes before cooking. This will give you maximum fluffiness!
Use a measuring cup to pour out the batter. Measuring out the batter ensures your pancakes are a uniform size and doesn’t take any extra time at all. Just use the measuring cup to scoop up the batter and then pour it on the griddle. If you use a 1/4 cup measure you’ll end up with pancakes about 4 inches across, which is a great size for kids. Or you can use a 1/2 cup measure for nice big pancakes, like the ones you see in these photos.
Pour the batter straight down on the griddle for circular pancakes. You do not need to pour the batter in a circle or try to smooth the batter out once it’s on the griddle; just pour it all out and let it do it’s thing.
Cook pancakes on a griddle for best results. Pancakes cook best on an electric griddle because you can control the heat and keep it at an even 350 degrees F. You can absolutely cook pancakes on a skillet on the stove, but it’s a bit harder to tell how hot your skillet actually is. Sprinkle a little water on your skillet and if the water immediately dances and sizzles you know it’s hot enough to start cooking pancakes. If the pancakes are getting too dark before they are ready to flip you’ll know you need to turn the heat down a bit.
Know when it’s time to flip your pancakes, and for fluffy pancakes only flip once. Pancakes are ready to flip when they having started to puff and bubbles are forming. Wait until a couple bubbles have popped and the edges are starting to look dry (this will take 2-3 minutes on a 350 degree griddle). Flip the pancake and let it cook 2-3 more minutes. If your temp is consistent you’ll have perfectly cooked pancakes that are golden brown on both sides and soft and fluffy in the middle.
How to Store/Freeze Pancakes
One thing we really love about pancakes is that they store and freeze beautifully! Allow them to cool completely, and then store them in a plastic zip top bag in the fridge for a few days. Reheat in the microwave or toaster. They freeze well too! To make sure they don’t stick together in the freezer you can place a small piece of parchment paper in between each pancakes and freeze them in a ziptop bag. Alternately, you can lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze until hard, and then transfer to a bag. Enjoy!
J. Beth says
Pretty decent but after I tasted it, I added vanilla for the last few to the batter that was left over. Wish I had done it earlier!