I believe that pancakes are supposed to be super easy to make, however mine never turn out fat, fluffy and golden brown like the pictures. My pancakes usually end up soggy in the middle and flat, and if I let them cook any longer they turn very golden brown!
Whatever I do wrong when I make pancakes, I consistently do it wrong (I did have a few exceptions with pumpkin, chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes). So I stopped following recipes and bought a box of pancake mix – all I needed to do was add water.
My first batch from the box pancake mix were fluffy, but they were still soggy inside and too golden brown on the outside, how disappointing! I read a bit closer on the box and found a useful tip – use shortening instead of butter or oil to grease the pan with when you’re making pancakes because shortening doesn’t burn as quickly. I would try this the next time I made pancakes.
Following a recipe which was on the back of the box, I made apple cinnamon pancakes. To make this, the pancake mix is made the regular way with the addition of water, but applesauce and cinnamon were also added to the mix. And I used shortening to grease the pan.
The result? One batch of the best pancakes I’ve ever made! Because the pancakes didn’t burn as fast (due to the shortening), the insides of the pancakes were able to cook completely. The pancakes were one of the fattest and fluffiest ones I’ve seen. The applesauce and cinnamon gave the pancakes a nice flavor, and was an instant favorite of my 2-year-old son’s.
I’m pretty sure that if you’d like to try the applesauce and cinnamon flavor, it should be able to mix into any plain pancake mix – whether a box mix or a homemade mix – without a problem. For a batch of 12 pancakes, you need to add 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. I used unsweetened applesauce.
Pancakes are great for breakfast, but I never am awake enough to prepare them in the morning! Our apple cinnamon pancakes ended up being dinner for us! :)
Mmm, I love apple and cinnamon pancakes.
Maybe you could make them the night before and then freeze them for breakfast?
Great idea, I’ll have to do that! Pancakes would beat a Pop Tart for breakfast any day! :D
Those do look like the fluffiest pancakes I’ve ever seen! Thanks for the tip about the shortening. I can’t wait to make another batch this weekend!
I hope the shortening trick works for you too!
I’m so intimidated by pancakes! Mine always end up being way too much work for the final result to taste like the oil they were cooked in. I’ll have to try this shortening trick next time. And the apple cinnamon twist sounds great. It’s 8:22pm, and I just had dinner, but I still want this stack of pancakes. :)
Let me know how they turn out when you make more pancakes with the shortening trick!
Thats a great trick! I think I’ll use it for the upcoming pumpkin pancakes I’m dreaming up!
Awesome! Thanks for commenting, Joy! I visit your site all the time so I’m happy to see you’ve visited mine too! :) Pumpkin pancakes sound great. I was thinking of making some too but with chocolate chips in them!
Bacon grease also works well :) Another thing is the temperature of the pan. If it’s too hot, the bottom burns before the middle is done, so erring on the cool side is best.
I’m so impatient though, and I find that the cooler the pan is, the longer it’ll take to cook it! :)
Those are some of the fluffiest pancakes I’ve seen! What a gorgeous photo.
Hmmm, yummy they look! Thanks for sharing!
Some other tricks for fluffy pancakes are:
~ in general don’t over mix the batter, never whisk it when the dry ingredients are added, and let it set about 15 minutes before making the pancakes (gives the baking soda time to work)
~ substitute seltzer water for the milk
~ separate the eggs, mix the yolks in with the wet ingredients, mix in the dry ingredients, beat the egg whites until they have soft peaks and fold into the batter
~ replace the eggs with a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise
Those are all great tips, thank you so much for sharing! I’m pretty sure I don’t overmix the batter, but I will also try letting the batter rest for 15 minutes next time. And I never ever would have thought to substitute mayonnaise for the eggs, but I may have to try that too!
I found that when making pancakes from scratch using applesauce in place of the eggs makes for very fluffy and moist pancakes.
Another great tip! Thanks! Do you know the conversion – how much applesauce for how many eggs?