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Fluffy pancakes are flat cakes, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying with oil or butter.
What Are Pancakes?
A pancake is a breakfast dish, a flat cake that’s made by pouring batter into a hot pan and frying it on both sides.
In North America, pancakes are made with a leavening agent, in Africa, it is spicy and savory while in Britain, they are much thinner like a crepe. Â Although commonly served as breakfast they can be eaten any time of day.
Toppings that are commonly used include fruit, syrup, jam, and in some cases meat or chocolate chips. Fluffy pancakes is a basic UK recipe and one of my all-time favorite Sunday morning breakfast treats.
How to Make Fluffy Pancakes
Everything you’ll need to make great fluffy pancake is most likely already in your kitchen. This is a simple recipe! The pancakes are softly perfumed with vanilla and aren’t overly sweet.
They’re tasty, and you can easily alter them to whatever you have on hand in the kitchen. Let’s do this!
Pancake Ingredients
We love simple, no-fail recipes and this pancake recipe is just that. It’s quick to make, and we’re willing to bet you’ve got everything you need to make them right now.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what you will need (the full recipe with ingredient amounts is shared in the recipe below).
Flour:Â Use all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, or a combination of the two. For gluten-free pancakes, use your favorite gluten-free flour blend or try buckwheat flour.
Sugar:Â We use granulated sugar, but other sugars like coconut sugar, raw sugar, or brown sugar will work in the recipe.
Baking Powder: It is the baking powder that makes these pancakes light and fluffy. If you’d like to make pancakes without baking powder, I have shared tips for using baking soda in the frequently asked questions below.
Salt:Â We like to use 1/2 teaspoon of fine salt. It balances the sugar nicely and brings out lots of flavor in the pancakes. If you are using salted butter, consider reducing the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
Milk: Whole milk, reduced-fat, and even skim milk will work in this recipe. For dairy-free pancakes, substitute non-dairy milk (like unsweetened almond milk or homemade oat milk). I’ve also used orange juice in place of the milk before and it worked nicely.
Melted Butter: You can’t beat the taste of butter for this, but if you need a plant-based option, melted coconut oil or melted plant-based butter work, too. We use unsalted butter, but salted butter will work as a substitute. If you do use salted butter, reduce the amount of salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
Egg: The egg adds structure, flavor, and fluffiness. I’ve shared tips in the frequently asked questions below for making pancakes without eggs.
Vanilla Extract:Â Vanilla adds sweetness and depth of flavor. You could try other extracts, too. Almond extract would be pretty delicious.
To Make Them Follow These Easy Steps:
- Whisk dry ingredients together
- Melt butter and warm milk (we use the microwave)
- Whisk wet ingredients together
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients
- Cook on a hot buttered skillet
- Enjoy!
Secret To Make Fluffy Pancakes
To make fluffy pancakes, blend the dry and wet components separately before cooking. You can mix the dry ingredients as much as you want, and the same goes for the liquid ingredients, but only use a little touch when the two mixtures come together.
Overmixing the batter is a common blunder that results in heavy, flat cakes rather than fluffy ones.
Pancake Variations
This is a basic pancake recipe. People use it often as is, but you can use it as a base for other recipes. Add what you love. Here are a few suggestions:
- Sprinkle a handful of berries, nuts or chocolate chips into the batter.
- Layer a few thin slices of strawberry or banana onto the wet batter once added to the skillet.
- Add lemon zest or spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice
- Try replacing some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour
- Add a few spoonful’s of flax seeds, oats, or reduce the sugar.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve had some frequently asked questions and here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Can I Make Pancakes Without Baking Powder?
Yes, you can. To use baking soda instead of baking powder, you will need to swap the milk for sour milk or buttermilk and use 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda.
The addition of sour milk is required because, unlike baking powder, baking soda needs acid to work in the recipe. If you go with the baking soda/sour milk combination, they will be just as fluffy as the original recipe.
Can I Make Fluffy Pancakes Without Buttermilk?
In short, yes. This pancake recipe uses no buttermilk at all (it does require regular milk though). So, you may ask, what’s the deal with buttermilk? Well, it’s terribly in vogue when it comes to baking. And there’s a reason for it. The acidity in buttermilk helps the pancakes rise.
You can create your own buttermilk alternative by mixing a cup of milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar and letting it sit for 10 minutes. Perhaps less conventionally, you could also use a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice instead of vinegar.
Neither option tastes as good as the real thing, but they’ll do the trick. Thankfully, with this recipe – you won’t need to!
How Do I Make Pancakes Without Eggs?
For pancakes without eggs, we use a flax egg. To make a flax egg, mix one tablespoon flaxseed meal (ground raw flaxseed) with 3 tablespoons water.
Set it aside for about 15 minutes in the refrigerator to thicken, and then use to replace the egg in the recipe.
Why Are My Pancakes Flat?
There are a number of factors that can lead to your pancakes being flat. But here are the four reasons:
- Overmixing your batter – overmixing your pancake batter will deflate a lot of the air bubbles in your batter, making it difficult for your pancakes to rise into the light and fluffy pancakes you want (the video in my recipe section is an example of this!). Secondly, it’ll develop gluten. And too much gluten will result in a tough, chewy pancake.
- Stale Baking Powder – baking powder typically has a shelf life of 9 months to a year. To check whether your baking powder is still fresh, simply stir half a teaspoon of baking powder into a cup of water. If you see an immediate reaction (it’ll fizz up, bestie!), then it’s still good to use. If not, you should consider replacing it.
- Humid Conditions – This is based on an observation made by many of my readers (you can see it mentioned in the comments section below). But a very humid kitchen results in a runnier batter, which means less fluffy pancakes. If you happen to be in a place that is very humid, try putting your batter in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to make sure it doesn’t become too fluid/runny.
- Not Letting Your Batter Rest – Letting your batter rest before cooking allows the starch granules in the flour to expand resulting in an airier pancake.
- The Violent Flip – Turn the pancakes over gently. Flipping them high into the air results in the air literally being squished out of them!
Also…make sure to relax. Making pancakes should be a pleasurable experience! And this fluffy pancake recipe is simple; it doesn’t require any fancy steps (like whipping egg whites into a meringue).
Be mindful of the tips above, and pay attention to your heat management, and you’re sure to be fine.
What To Serve With Pancakes
- I love serving pancakes with fruit! Try this easy African Mango and Cucumber Salad.
- Bacon or sausage is classic.
- You can also serve with scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Storage Instructions
Though they are best served fresh and warm, these pancakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
You can also store your maple syrup separately (and not on top of the pancakes), so that it doesn’t soak through.
Reheat Instructions
To reheat them, microwave one pancake for about 20 seconds. Add another 5-10 seconds as you add additional pancakes.
If you know you’re going to have pancakes in the morning, you could even pop the number of pancakes you’ll need into the fridge the night before so they thaw (which is what I’ve been doing). Either way, these reheat beautifully.
Fluffy Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cups milk
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Sift flour and baking powder to remove clumps or unwanted items.
- In one bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
- In a smaller bowl, crack in the egg, pour the milk, melted butter and vanilla essence and mix well using a fork.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients inside and gently fold the batter together with a wooden spoon until there are no longer any large lumps.
- Heat up a pan on medium heat; add a teaspoon of butter or vegetable oil when it is hot.
- Scoop a small portion of the pancake batter and add to the pan.
- Flip and cook both sides for 2-3 minutes. It’s ready to flip over when bubbles/holes appear at the top of the pancake.