Pancakes have always been a frustrating and disappointing experience for me. Most of my life I have been completely unable to cook them without burning the outsides or leaving them raw in the middle. After making pancakes every Saturday for three months, I can honestly say everything I knew about pancakes was wrong.  If you are like me, you grew up making pancakes from a box, not a recipe. Box pancakes are generally easy to make because there is only one way to make them; but as soon as you enter the world of personal, customized recipes everything changes. All the tricks (like, don’t flip it until the bubbles stop closing) lead me astray the more creative I got with my cooking, to the point where I nearly abandoned pancakes entirely. I think it actually took me three months of regular pancake making to gain any confidence in making or adapting them. So, let me first share a few of tips about making pancakes, then go over 3 of my favorite pancake recipes.

• You don’t need bubbles to form if you are making thick cake-like pancakes, and you need the top of the pancake to be almost dry and dotted with tons of holes if you are making incredibly thin pancakes.
• “too hot” doesn’t make the pancakes look weird, too much grease does. Having your pan too hot just burns the pancakes. This explains why the first pancake always looks weird. I’ve found the best way to handle that problem is to use well seasoned iron skillets, seasoned to the point where you don’t need to add additional grease (there is butter in the batter for these recipes). If you must add oil to the pan, try to towel most of it away, leaving the thinnest coating possible.
• sugar AND butter are used in the recipes to help caramelize the pancakes, making them a nice golden brown. If you want to remove or adjust one of these you will need to compensate with the other or your pancakes will be pretty gross (over cooked on the inside, or underdone on the outside)
• you don’t have to line everyone up and serve them right away. Put them on a plate in the oven on the lowest temperature and they will be fine for at least a couple hours (I promise!)
• I strongly, strongly recommend serving your pancakes with sour cream and real maple syrup. The combination is incredible.

Basic Pancake Recipe: (this is an unsweetened, slightly salty pancake recipe, fluffy and wonderfully golden)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) melted butter

Method:

• sift dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl
• in a small bowl, beat 1 egg and mix in 2 cups of milk and the melted butter
• add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and quickly mix them together well (it can be lumpy, just make sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients hugging the bowl)
• using a ladle measure about a half cups worth of batter into a hot well seasoned pan. Flip when it fluffs up a little and the pancake seems a little stiffer. You can lift a corner and peak underneath if you are uncertain when to flip it.

NOTE: for thinner crepe-like pancakes add about a 1/4 cup more milk, mix well and flip when the tops are dry.

Chocolate Corn Cakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 cup corn flour (do not use polenta or coarse cornmeal)
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate, cut coarsely
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) melted butter

Method:

• sift dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl then add the 2 oz of chocolate
• in a small bowl, beat 1 egg and mix in 2 cups of milk and the melted butter
• add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and quickly mix them together well (it can be lumpy, just make sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients hugging the bowl)
• using a ladle measure about a half cups worth of batter into a hot well seasoned pan. Flip when it fluffs up a little and the pancake seems a little stiffer. You can lift a corner and peak underneath if you are uncertain when to flip it.

Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 Tablespoons of molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) melted butter

Method:

• sift dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl then add the 2 oz of chocolate
• in a small bowl, beat 1 egg with 3 Tablespoons of molasses before mixing in 2 cups of milk and the melted butter
• add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and quickly mix them together well (it can be lumpy, just make sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients hugging the bowl)
• using a ladle measure about a half cups worth of batter into a hot well seasoned pan. Flip when it fluffs up a little and the pancake seems a little stiffer. You can lift a corner and peak underneath if you are uncertain when to flip it.

NOTE: Because of the molasses these pancakes will cook faster than most pancakes. Flip them a little earlier than you think you need to, they burn quickly. Also, be careful about adapting the quantity of buckwheat. Too much will make the pancakes sandy and bitter. Buckwheat also absorbs a liquid quickly, meaning you might need to add extra milk if you add extra buckwheat.