Did you know that pancakes are more than 30,000 years old? Of course, back then, pancakes were not the sugary breakfast food that we know and love today, mainly because people in the stone age had no access to sugar cane and only honey could serve as a substitute. Todays pancakes are much more flavorful, fluffier, and sugarier than ever before.
And yet, learning how to get the best pancake mix consistency can still be a big challenge for many people. Whether youre using pancake mix or making pancakes from scratch, you will likely run into the same problems when trying to make delicious, fluffy pancakes. And if your pancake batter isnt the right consistency, the resulting pancakes will suffer in quality as a result.
Instead of ending up with thick and fluffy pancakes, you might end up with unusually thin pancakes or even pancakes that look more like actual cakes than pancakes. But how should you go about fixing this problem? Keep reading and learn more about the secrets of getting the right pancake batter consistency and, ultimately, the perfect pancakes.
Pancake batter is slightly lumpy, but not too thick. Your pancake mix should be thick enough to drip off the spoon little by little instead of pouring too easily onto your heated surface. If you believe your mix is too thick, add milk a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.
How to Get the Best Pancake Batter Consistency
The first thing you will need to do when creating the perfect pancake batter is to leave out all the ingredients until they reach room temperature. Many people make the mistake of making pancake batter with cold eggs or cold milk and then wonder why the batter doesnt come out right. Cold ingredients, especially eggs, dont like to become light and fluffy when mixed if theyre still cold.
While it wont be the end of the world if you mix cold ingredients together (or cold ingredients with warm ingredients), the distribution of the temperature wont be ideal for the batter. You especially wont want to use very hot ingredients such as hot melted butter in the batter.
Thats because such a hot ingredient can actually end up cooking some of the other ingredients in the batter. This will make the batter very clumpy and it likely wont taste all that great. While waiting might require a little bit of extra patience, waiting for the ingredients to warm up to room temperature will be worth it.
If you dont have time to wait for your ingredients to reach room temperature, you can always add some of them to the microwave. You should only microwave your cold ingredients for 10 or 20 seconds. If you microwave the ingredients more than this, they might start to cook and they will no longer be suitable for pancake batter.
Heating some of the ingredients such as the eggs in a double boiler is a good alternative if you dont have a microwave. But again, be sure not to warm the ingredients too much or theyll start to cook.
You will also want to make sure that youre using the right ingredients for the consistency that you want. For example, buttermilk or pancake mix that has buttermilk is very helpful when it comes to creating light and fluffy pancakes.
If youre only using water or ordinary milk to mix the pancakes, they might come out dense and too thick like a cake. Buttermilk, on the other hand, has the ability to become light and fluffy when mixed and this consistency will translate into the resulting pancakes. But you will also need to consider the gluten problem.
Whether youre making pancakes with pancake mix or from scratch, gluten can be a big problem. Thats because virtually anything that has flour in it can create gluten. When it comes to bread and certain breakfast pastries, gluten is a good thing.
For example, the reason why you need to knead bread is that it promotes the formation of gluten. Once gluten starts to form, the dough will become thicker and chewier than before. At the end of the day, gluten will ensure that you have a good loaf of bread and sub-par pancakes.
Pancakes should not be chewy like a loaf of bread. Instead, they should be light and fluffy. This difference has to do with how you mix your pancake batter. To save some time, you might be tempted to mix the batter at the highest speed with your mixer, but this is a bad idea.
Mixing the pancake batter too harshly will promote the formation of gluten. For that reason, you will want to be very careful when mixing. Forming a little gluten wont be the end of the world.
However, too much gluten in the batter will make it too thick and dense. To solve this problem, try to mix the batter by hand instead of using an electronic mixer. This way, you will be able to control how you mix the batter.
When you mix, try to use gentle strokes with the mixture, folding the ingredients until they combine. These gentle movements will keep the gluten formation to a minimum.
The Details of Pancake Mix
But what about the health of the pancake mix? Some people wont buy pancake mix because they are afraid of certain ingredients that might not be healthy for them (even though pancakes themselves are not exactly a healthy food).
While it is true that some pancake mixes use ingredients that are not all that healthy, there are other mixes that are made to be as healthy as possible. For that reason, as long as you choose a healthy pancake mix brand, the resulting pancakes will more or less be as healthy as any pancakes that you make from scratch. Pancake mixes also have a unique benefit: they are very convenient.
Most of the ingredients in pancake mixes are already mixed so you dont have to worry about scouring the kitchen for a bunch of different ingredients. If you dont have a lot of time to work with, this can be ideal. But whether youre making homemade pancake batter or batter from pancake mix, how do you get the right consistency?
How to Make Pancake Batter
FAQ
How do you know if pancake mix is good?
Should pancake batter be whisked?
Should you make your own pancake batter?
One of the biggest reasons why you should try to make your own pancake batter is because you will be able to have full control over all aspects of the pancake. Not only will you be able to decide on the flavor of the pancake, but you can also choose the consistency of the batter and any other additions you might want to include.
Are pancakes healthy to eat?
Pancake mixes are made from enriched flours, sugar, syrup, trans fats that have had nutrients added to the flour during manufacturing process. It also contains very low fiber, added sugar and syrup is likely to raise the blood sugars quickly. In this way pancake mixes are not healthy. But if they are made at home in an Indian style they are more healthy.
What is pancake batter?
Pancake batter is the combination of both dry and wet ingredients in any pancake recipe. The batter is then poured onto a hot pan and cooked yielding pancakes. Is Pancake Mix Just All Purpose Flour? There are 3 types of pancake mixes: a homemade pancake mix is a combination of flour, baking powder, and salt.
How many strokes of batter do you need to make a pancake?
About 12 strokes with a whisk is sufficient mixing for thick batter. While thick batter has some advantages, thin batter has its perks too. Thin batter spreads out easily into super thin, lacy pancakes with crispy edges. The high spreadability allows extra surface area for browning and caramelization to develop.