Pancakes | Blue Jean Chef - The Basics Series

I love pancakes, who doesn't? So let's learn how to make them really, really easily. You might be tempted to get a box mix, but you don't have to because there's really just a few ingredients and you probably already have them at home. So here's how you can make buttermilk at home. Take some lemon, take some regular milk and combine them and then just let that sit while we prepare everything else. So let's combine our dry ingredients first. It's a cup of flour, about a tablespoon of sugar, some baking powder, a little bit of salt. And we're going to whisk it together. I don't really feel like sifting it and this is just as good. Now we're going to mix our wet ingredients, an egg and that buttermilk. But I want to whip some air into that egg so I can end up with nice, fluffy pancakes. Not too much, just to get enough air in there. Once that's there, we can go ahead and add that buttermilk substitute that we made. You see how it was a bit clumpy? That's what happens. I'm going to whisk that together again. And now let's preheat our pan over medium, medium-high heat. So I'm going to use the bigger bowl as my batter bowl and I'm going to pour in my wet ingredients. I'll whisk it a little bit, but I don't want to overmix it because I want my pancakes to be more like cake, fluffy, than like bread, chewy. The best way to make pancakes round and a perfectly round shape is to use a pouring vessel to pour those pancakes onto the griddle. So I'm just going to transfer a little bit to a smaller pouring jar. So how do you know when your pan is the right temperature? You add a little bit of water, just on the ends of your fingers. You can sprinkle it onto the pan. It should sizzle right away, then you know your pan is hot enough. So once that water's evaporated, then you can go ahead and add the butter to the pan. I like to use the butter because I like the lacy look it gives to the pancakes and the crispy edges around the side. I'm using a square griddle here because square-shaped pans actually give you more room to cook things. And the griddle's low sides makes it really easy to flip those pancakes. And you see, pouring straight into the center of the pancake gives you the perfect round pancake. So what you're looking for before you turn the pancakes are for some holes to appear. Not just bubbles, but when those bubbles start to burst, that's when it's time to turn the pancakes over. You can see that happening right here. So using a really thin spatula, you can just flip those pretty pancakes. And look how nice and fluffy they are. Now the second side isn't going to take as long as the first side, so keep that in mind. And I also turn the temperature down just a little bit because the pan has had time to build that heat back up again. So before you're finished, heat up your maple syrup. You know, why would you put cold maple syrup on your beautifully warm pancakes, right? Oh, delicious.