Cook's Illustrated Light & Fluffy Pancakes

Gillian Spence's Note:

This batter serves four perfectly for a light weekday breakfast. You may want to double the recipe for weekend pancake making, when appetites are larger. If you happen to be using salted butter or buttermilk, you may want to cut back a bit on the salt. If you don’t have any buttermilk, mix three-quarters cup of room temperature milk with one tablespoon of lemon juice and let it stand for five minutes. Substitute this “clabbered milk” for the three-quarters cup of buttermilk and one-quarter cup of milk in this recipe. Since this milk mixture is not as thick as buttermilk, the batter and resulting pancakes will not be as thick.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 3-4

Yield: 8.0 3 inch ...

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup milk (plus an extra tablespoon or so if batter is too thick)
• 1 large egg , separated
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (for brushing griddle)

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Pour buttermilk and milk into 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Whisk in egg white; mix yolk with melted butter, then stir into milk mixture.
3. Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients all at once; whisk until just mixed.
4. Meanwhile, heat griddle or large skillet over strong medium-high heat. Brush griddle generously with oil.
5. When water splashed on surface confidently sizzles, pour batter, about 1/4 cup at a time, onto griddle, making sure not to overcrowd. When pancake bottoms are brown and top surface starts to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes, flip cakes and cook until remaining side has browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Re-oil the skillet and repeat for the next batch of pancakes.

Reviews

[onedge]

The search for a decent pancake ended when I found this recipe. Absolutely perfect! I've tried numerous recipes that turned out disappointing. These rise nicely without a baking powder after taste. The entire family loves it. Simply addicting. Another great recipe from CI.

[NVirginian]

The Best of the Best! I usually add a drizzle of vanilla to the batter. It's my only recipe for pancakes that I use because I almost never buy prepackaged mixes. Thanx!

[firefly68]

Outstanding! I had no b'milk so used 2/3C yogurt and milk to make 1C plus 2 Tbls (too thick with just 1C), and I used half whole wheat flour. Even with my modifications these were the best I've ever had. Good ol' CI...thanks for posting this, Gillian!