"Normal Flour". . . . . :-D So funny.

I bet waffles would really be a challenge!

Speaking of pancakes, I have a recipe I like, since I only crave pancakes once or twice a year. I was watching Americas Test Kitchen, and they insisted to barely mix, leaving large lumps in the batter, and let it rest an hour before cooking. I thought I would use my recipe and try that. I don't know which change, suspect the mixing, but they were not quite as good as normal. I usually leave lumps, but not large lumps. Maybe I should not have taken them so literally?

I make pancakes often. One calls for sour cream and eggs, the other is a milk kefir recipe. I use that, subbing kefir for combination of yogurt and milk, making a buttermilk flavour. I too let it rest for a few minutes (not an hour) The batter gets little bubbles.

When one grows up in the kitchen, what we take for granted thinking everyone knows this or that, it's weird to contemplate that people reach adulthood without knowing at least the basics of cooking. (Schools need to bring back Home Ec!) Bless you for helping your guest get started and maybe she will find it enjoyable enough to find more things to make.

I can make killer waffles.......but making a decent pancake has stumped me for all of my cooking life :-) Following a recipe or using a pancake mix, it really doesn't matter. They do not ever turn out the way I like them. So this is one item I prefer to order when I go out rather than attempting to make at home (and fwiw, there is a very short list of places that I would order pancakes from.....and none include "pancake" in their name!!).

In fact, I just tried again yesterday using Bisquick. How can you mess that up?? IDK but they didn't look or taste right. Even with my sourdough starter, which I swear by for the waffles, I cannot make a decent pancake.

I think that this is one reason that the recipes that are written like a book, with lots of pictures are so popular. If you didn't grow up "helping" measure or mix, you have no idea what a recipe is talking about. I just skip to the actual recipe.

One of our local bloggers, in Huntsville, AL, started because someone had never made banana pudding. She put together a step by step tutorial showing how. She even put pictures of the bagged and boxed ingredients!

Dh & I make buttermilk pancakes every few months. I mix the batter and he mans the griddle. I agree that the batter should sit a bit.

Gardengal, Not exact, because I don't measure. I use a two burner cast iron griddle. Any cast iron is good.

1 1/2-2 cups self rising flour, you can use all purpose, just add baking powder and salt

1 egg

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil, I wouldn't use olive oil for this.

1 cup milk of any kind, cow, soy, rice

Preheat cast iron on medium heat. If using an electric skillet, heat at 350*

Mix above with whisk. Mixture will be smooth and kinda like a thin white sauce. If too thin add a little flour, too thick a little milk. Add small amount of oil to pan and spread with pastry brush. Drop 1 OXO soup ladle of mix on hot pan. These are big pancakes, because I fed boys, lol. Drop smaller amounts if you want smaller pancakes. Let cook until bubbles form at edges and it starts to look set, flip and finish. I like to butter while warm.

ETA: I think I use 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour. Like I said I don't measure.

tigereye, I have tried all manner of recipes including a few that were almost identical to yours. And have an excellent Calphalon griddle as well as an electric one. I know how to make pancakes.....I just don't like them when homemade! They are missing some sort of je ne sais quoi in the taste department that I have not yet figured out. And since this is not a everyday menu item, I am happy to save my pancake urges for when I go out :)

And if you like blueberry pancakes, I've found it is better to drop the batter on the griddle then sprinkle the berries on top. Otherwise you end up with blue batter.

ps-Tigereye, we're practically neighbors! I live between Scottsboro and Guntersville.

LOL, I'm just the opposite! I like mine, but don't like anything at a restaurant.

ETA: Edie, not only blueberries, but the grands like chocolate chip and those work better sprinkled also.

ETA#2: I don't even use Bisquick in the "Sausage Balls" anymore. I don't know if they have changed the mix, but it has a metallic off taste to me now.

'normal flower' ... daisy?

makes won wunder ...

how do you grind up the flower?

Gardengal, it's all shots in the dark since we can't taste the pancakes you like, but here are some more variations in case some haven't come your way. I can't make my father's pancakes anymore without turning it into a project with raw milk. He used sour milk, and the milk doesn't sour with modern processing. It either rots or goes directly to cheese. I haven't tried kefir, though. That might be close, moreso than sour cream or yoghurt. Buttermilk are good pancakes, but really different.

There's also the melt s pool of salted butter in the frying pan and pour the excess into the batter. Another old timey thing that makes a different flavor and texture. As one might expect, they're shorter--literally--but there's a nutty brown butter flavor, and feeling of richness.

Another thing, which is usually found in pizza crust and bagels, but sometimes pancakes, is barley malt. There are a few kinds of malt, including syrup, which can be used for sweetening as well as the malt flavor. Someone might even use malted milk powder. Or, for that matter, condensed milk.

Of course, I was just helping my guest replicate mix. I've seen recipes that say to let the batter stand, but I'm thinking that's only relevant if you use a mixer and your pan/griddle is already hot and ready to go. Yes, you do want the soda reaction with liquid to start (first action of baking powder), but just oiling the pan, getting the spatula or whatnot, should be enough time. One doesn't want the batter to go flat before it's done. Oh! Unless you're only making half a dozen small pancakes. Maybe the ten minutes gets you to optimum? I can't imagine any good thing letting it sit for an hour will do, unless you want flatter pancakes that only use the heat rising part of the double acting baking powder? I think pancakes should be fluffy, but to each, her/his own.

Re lumps, the reason for leaving them is that they'll resolve themselves, but once you're on the gluten train (overbeating a batter) there's no going back, and no one likes tough pancakes!

Tigereye, it's probably the baking powder, but I've thought bisquik has had a metallic off taste since childhood, when my mother tried it out.

BTW, if one is going to use a mix, the original, pre-TV appearance, Kodiak Cakes flapjack mix is excellent. Good flavor, whole grain, and 1:1 mix with water so you can make just as much as you want without multiples (or partials) of eggs. Grainlady told us about Honeyxxx (Honeychurch? Honeywell?, Honeyvale?) Ova Easy egg crystals which make up as real eggs, though white and yellow mixed a la scramble. I was going to get them to make my own mix, for that convenience of the 1:1 with water, but couldn't find where to get a single can that didn't cost a fortune, and got hooked on sourdough waffles instead. ;)

@plllog, I love this story. And I can absolutely relate. Flour is the most underrated ingredient. It's amazing how many completely different and tasty dishes you can make with flour and just a few other ingredients. But they all depend so much on proper technique and many unspoken rules. If you grew up learning how to "cook by feel", then all of this will be very intuitive. Otherwise, it can certainly be overwhelming.

We now have kids who are starting to be the age that they learn to cook their own basic foods. And it's amazing how many little things we need to gradually teach them. It's really fun to see them make progress, too.

I think many have learned to like the taste of preservatives and artificial flavorings. I can't stand canned soup...it lends a flavor to stuff that turns me off. I can't stand things like most cake and muffin mixes, because they must have some preservative and artificial "butter' flavor....bis quick is OK to me.
So I suspect those who say they cam't make pancakes at home as good as they get out are talking about that "taste" which they like but I hate.

Those looking for a restaurant pancake, try searching for something like "recipe for IHOP pancakes" and some copycat recipes come up. I noticed in the recipe posted here, there is no sugar, there needs to be sugar in the pancake recipe for sure, I'm pretty sure a pinch of salt also. I normally make a whole wheat waffle recipe which is only just acceptable when I'm really craving waffles, it's nothing like a restaurant recipe. I've often wondered if restaurants don't just use cake batter for pancakes?

No, No sugar. The sugar comes from the syrup. The salt is already in the self rising flour. Maybe that is why I don't like Bisquick, if it has sugar.

Some restaurants use mix, some don't. Some make their own mix. Commercial mixes can be different from home style ones.

Restaurants that specialize in breakfasts and sell a lot of pancakes are likely to make their own, or at least add their own twists if they use something like a Bisquick or self rising flour.

I just checked: Bisquick does have a little sugar (less than salt) and some common chemicals.

Some people do make pancakes slightly sweet. They're cakes. It's fine. I prefer not, but the malt ones are good.

Not all restaurant has bad or inferior food. Many restaurants, especially non-chains, make real food from scratch.

Gardengal, maybe when you're at one of the places that makes the pancakes you like, you can ask what's in them. They might not tell you the secret ingredient, but they might. :)

we make pancakes for the church breakfasts, and use the box mixes, which I amend freely/greatly. I do not like the 'just add water' mixes. I use extra eggs, extra 2% or better milk, melted butter rather than oil, and just 'a hint' of sugar, after all, they are a cake, as JC opines ... and it causes people to use less syrup to sate their morning sweet tooth ... a key is letting the mix sit before you use it.

I couldn't have said it better than M did : )

plllog, I also loved the way you treated your friend so well, and have such kindness and understanding toward others who don't cook, or do not cook often. We all have priorities, and they vary. I so agree, pancakes are very easy, and yet, they are also hard to make. You have reminded me how I take all I learned at an early age for granted. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I was given by my Mom, and also by my friends here on the Cooking Forum.

Put me in the category of those who prefer my own (buttermilk) pancakes. I won't eat restaurant pancakes. I make pancakes once a month, mostly because for me, they are easy : )

I must have made a zillion pancakes when my sons were growing up, but I had to relearn when the oldest grandson ended up stage 5 out of 5 allergic to dairy. No cow milk of any kind. No butter. No margarine with whey (that is dairy).

The trick is like biscuits. If you do them enough, you can feel when it is right for the texture and taste you want.

I actually learned a new trick on this forum the other day. Somebody posted their recipe for two-ingredient pancakes. It was just one ripe banana and two eggs blended and then pan fried.

I couldn't stop thinking about it. On the one hand, it sounds entirely ridiculous that those two ingredients would make a pancake. On the other hand, the longer I thought about it, it not only sounded tasty, I felt that it actually might work.

We happened to have some bananas that had to be used up, so I gave it a try. But unlike the original poster, we don't have a dietary requirement to avoid other ingredients. So, I added a small amount of flour (maybe about half a cup), a little baking powder, cinnamon and some vanilla extract. And you know what, I have to eat crow here! This little recipe resulted in the damn best and fluffiest pancakes I have ever made. It only had a mild banana flavor, which actually worked really well.

So, if you want to make dairy-free pancakes, I can now tell you how to do that. And in fact, I think I'll use this recipe again in the future. The only missing component is the little tartness that buttermilk contributes in traditional recipes. I wonder if I can just add something a little acidic without making any other major changes to the recipe.

Buttermilk has about 7mg/g of lactic acid; so, maybe adding just shy of 1g of lactic acid per banana would do the trick? I have citric acid, cream of tartar, and vitamin C in my pantry. But I don't normally stock lactic acid. Any idea if this would be a worthwhile experiment and I should buy some?

I've been thinking about those banana pancakes too. Gotta try them soon!

Last night, I started a new thread based on what M said about flour. The top post in the new thread doesn't say anything substantive, but long. Mostly that staples are full of magic. I hope any of you who have something to say on the subject, or about anything from clafoutis to bread will chime in.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5865984/pantry-magic-and-the-miracle-of-ap-flour#n=1

Naturegirl, I have bowl scrapers too, but when I wanted one the other day, I kept looking in the wrong drawer!

M, your banana pancake experience sounds similar to mine with banana fritters some months back. The bananas bring sugar and sub for flour. The eggs bring the fluff. Peanut butter is another thing that substitutes well for staples, flour and oil, in this case. But I love flour. ;)

I think there are two big obstacles to people who don't cook or at least don't cook from scratch. The first you've identified - lack of basic technical knowledge. The second, I believe, is the lack of pantry staples. It's no big deal for me to make cookies or pancakes or bread because I always have the ingredients on hand, properly stored (no stale whole wheat flour of unknown age etc.). If people have to make an ingredient list, go to the store and buy the whole doggone list, it's HARD to bake cookies. I might have to pick up some eggs or be running a bit short on unbleached AP, but I always have everything else and would buy eggs/AP next time I went to the grocery whether I planned to make anything specifically or not. People who don't cook or bake regularly don't always have flour, baking powder (from this century), vanilla, brown sugar, a particular vinegar, meat or vegetable stock, onions, beans, etc. etc. etc.

You're absolutely right. I think that's a big reason those meal kits are popular. I buy onions in differing sizes, so I don't have a lot of partial onions around, but I also know how to adjust a recipe. Some really mean that they want a cup of chopped onions, but generally, a tennis ball sized onion will do, and if you only have a handball sized onion, it'll do. If you don't know how to cook and don't know how to store half an onion, and don't know what to do with half an onion before it goes moldy, then opening a kit with a chopped onion in it saves you more than just tears.

In the pancakes case, she really did have all the ingredients, and even had vanilla and other baking supplies, including scoop style measuring cups. We just had a little lesson in keeping bugs out of the flour. :) But she has a canister, so I'm guessing her MIL was almost giggling because she, the MIL (at my guess), is the pantry fairy who empties the flour bag into the canister.

Yes, I believe basic technical skills are lacking. Even more so the younger you go. It can make a scratch pancake a daunting task if you don't know how to measure ingredients. But once they have those skills, I think someone usually needs to help someone find the right level of lumpiness and the right batter thickness. You are so kind and patient with your friend, and she is showing a great willingness to advance her skills. I think we can all feel for the MIL.

The banana pancakes sounds intriguing. I don't like the carb-heavy load of a big pancake breakfast very often. When I do indulge, I like the buttermilk pancakes that practically explode out of the batter bowl, or lemon ricotta pancakes that give that extra load of protein. But even there, those recipes go beyond typical pantry staples for most people, like ricotta. I tossed my cast iron griddle long ago and graduated to a more evenly conductive griddle (Demeyere). The evenness is so much better..