The One Pancake Recipe You Will Ever Need | Culinary K

Pancakes have got to be the best go to comfort food going. I’m not sure how something so simple becomes such a heart hug. Think about them. They feel like a heart hug in your mouth. Have you ever held a warm pancake? Heart hug. Soft, warm…the smell is home. HEART HUG.

It’s hard to believe you can improve upon them, but millions have. I-HOP has made a business out of it (Oh, glorious pancake Mecca). And then, there is the waffle…So let’s talk about what I do to improve the basic recipe. Stay tuned to the end for a fruity switch up.

What you’ll need: Bisquick, eggs, water, milk, cinnamon, plain vegetable oil, real butter, vanilla, your favorite syrup.

Bisquick is great! I mean you can make so much with it. It’s basically just the dry ingredients all measured up and ready to go for you. No need to make things harder in the kitchen. It won’t make you a better cook. Obviously, if you have a gluten-allergy you can’t use it. Substitute your gluten free mix.

Prepare your sides, such as bacon, sausage and fruit, set aside (do not use the griddle to do this the fat will cause burning). Mix the batter as written on the Bisquick box. Absolutely you can substitute a from scratch recipe here. Whether it’s thick or thin, will determine if you need to do the final step.

2 Cups Bisquick
2 Eggs
1 Cup Milk

Stir together until there are no lumps. Now comes the perfecting the recipe part. Add:

2 TBSP Vanilla
1 TSP Cinnamon

Stir together until all mixed in. Now heat your griddle, coating it with the plain vegetable oil (please stop using canola oil-that stuff is used on machines and shouldn’t be in your gut). While that warms up, add:

Water

until the pancake mixture is thin (not watery–so don’t add any to a thin batter). This takes practice. I can’t tell you how much I add, because I eyeball it directly from the faucet. It might be like 1/2 cup, might be less. You can measure a 1/2 cup out and then slowly add it until you get them right where they need to be. This will stretch the number of cakes and produce the perfect texture. The plain recipe without water makes them too thick and they’re hard to chew.

Test cook your first cake. Usually the first round needs work, because you’re tempering the pan. You can feed those four to the dogs, if you don’t want to show the family, or eat them yourself. If you used too much oil, they’ll soak it up, adding to the calorie/fat ratio. Be mindful.

Do not abandon the griddle. The cakes cook fairly quickly. Keep the temperature somewhere between 325-350. Once the bubbles form all over the top, they’re ready to flip. Use a firm spatula. This side will take even less time. If you need to check if it’s browned, feel free to lift the edges with the spatula. If you haven’t flipped them yet, because you’re unsure, be careful you don’t spill batter off the top of the cake to the other side and off the edge.

If you’re using real maple syrup, warm the syrup before adding to the cakes and add it only when you’re ready to eat. For some reason real maple will soak up into the cakes and make it seem there is none. I butter my cakes before putting on the maple. Plate with bacon, sausage and/or fresh fruit.

Making a blueberry compote to go on top is easy.

Wash and drain fresh blueberries. Throw them in a small sauce pot. add a TSP of sugar and honey, a dash of cinnamon, TBSP of water (which should cook off). Heat on medium, constantly but gently stirring until the berries swell, turn purple and have a good juice formed. Use them on pancakes, waffles, toast or even ice cream. You can do this with any berry you wish, or apples, peaches and pears.