Let’s be honest, everyone loves pancakes in some shape or form. Almost every household, no matter the location, has its own recipe and way of preparing. Pancakes can be eaten with meat like bacon or sausages, or they can be eaten with various kinds of syrups and toppings as a dessert. Pancakes can fit any type of nutrition, they can be healthy or less so, but one thing is for sure: pancakes are tasty!
However, a lot of pancake lovers have an issue with this delicious meal, and that is the nuisance of preparing them, larger quantities to be exact. If you ever prepared pancakes for more than 2 people, using a standard pan, you are most certainly aware of this problem. Having to bake pancakes one by one takes a lot of time, and being that this food is almost always served as a breakfast, you do not want to be late for work. That is why larger quantities are prepared on a griddle, which is going to be our main focus here.
Things You’ll Need
In this section, we are going to cover everything that goes into making delicious pancakes, from hardware to the bare ingredients. We are aware that most people are familiar with the process, however, bare in mind that there are always people who just started cooking, and we shouldn’t deny them this godliness. We are going to mark all the necessary things with a (*) and the rest will just be there for more convenience or flavor enhancing.
1. Hardware and cookware
- A functioning electric pancake griddle, or an outdoor griddle *
- A ladle to fit the size of a single pancake*
- A bowl for the pancake mix*
- One clean plate for baked pancakes
2. Ingredients
- 2 cups of standard pancake mix*
- 2 medium-sized eggs*
- A ½ cup of skimmed milk*
- Ground cinnamon dust
- A mix of nuts. Anything resembling a trail mix will do
Before You Start Cooking
Regardless of the type of griddle, there are some preparations steps you should consider making. As you probably already know, griddle’s cooking surface can be made of various types of metals, with cast-iron and steel being the major two. Each of these materials has a prep procedure that will ensure your pancakes don’t stick to the surface and make it super easy to clean.
Cast iron griddles
Before going on, you can check our cast iron griddle reviews to gain more knowledge about them. Keeping cast iron in a well-seasoned state is paramount if you want your griddle to give optimal results, and to make your food taster every time you use it. If you intend to cook pancakes often, we would like to tell you a little secret. Instead of the standard procedure of seasoning the griddle cooking surface with lard or fat, we recommend you to try using coconut oil. This will give your pancakes extra crispiness without making them dry, and it will provide the griddle with a nice smell, which will partially transfer to the food as well. Do not worry about the food getting too sweet because of coconut oil because you should use a tablespoon only (for an averagely sized griddle).
Steel or aluminum griddles
These require no special tending to, but you should keep them squeaky clean. Before you begin the pancake cookout on a steel griddle, make sure to get some cooking spray. Even though most griddles have a nonstick cooking surface, pancakes tend to be ultra-sticky, and cooking sprays will take care of that. After all, no one likes to spend half a day scrubbing a griddle.
Cooking the Pancakes
First and foremost, a simple step that everyone seems to forget: preheat the griddle! After you have seasoned your cast iron griddle or cleaned the steel cooking surface, turn the heat to reach 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do not have access to a thermometer, 350 can usually be found somewhere in the middle of the gauge. In the case of steel or aluminum griddles, this would be the time to apply some cooking spray on. Now, to address the most important things:
- While the griddle is heating up, take a large bowl and put 2 cups of pancake mix in. To avoid clumping make sure that the cup and the bowl are perfectly fried.
- Break the eggs you have prepared and added them to the bowl. Do not start stirring yet!
- Add a ½ cup of milk to the batter and start stirring.
- Keep stirring until the batter is smooth and homogenous.
- Use the ladle to pour a small amount of the batter onto the hot cooking surface of the griddle. Put as much as your griddle surface allows, keeping at least an inch between the pancakes.
- Wait for the batter to solidify a bit and the bubbles to form in the middle. Now is the perfect time to flip the pancake.
- Cook on the other side until that famous golden-brown color appears.
These simple seven steps, or eight if you count the preheating process (which we urge you to not forget) should do the trick. Making pancakes is not that hard, and you should experiment with sizes and flavors any time you get the chance. The list of things that could go wrong is quite short. If you notice smoke or the edges of a pancake turning black, lower the heat and repeat the process. Pancakes take the least time to cook and go great with bacon and sausages.
A Few Extra Tips
For sweet-tooth people out there, we recommend experimenting by adding ground cinnamon into the mix before baking. After you put the eggs and milk in, pour some cinnamon and enjoy the sweet and unique taste of cinnamon pancakes.
Another great addition for people who like so extra protein is to take trail mix ingredients and grind them into larger pieces. Add this mix before you add the eggs, and you will have super=healthy pancakes for breakfast in no time.
Of course, remember this famous rule: if the pancakes are extra chewy, add fewer eggs next time. And if they tend to break easily while cooking on the griddle, you need to add less milk in the next batch.
Making pancakes on a griddle give breakfast food a whole new dimension. You can make more while spending less time in the kitchen. And feel free to experiment with different toppings and servings.
GrillnSkill team says Bon appétit!
