Never Make This Recipe With Your KitchenAid Mixer
A few weeks ago I was researching the KitchenAid stand mixer and I came across a blog post by someone that I thought was not the best advice. The post was all about making pancakes with your mixer (or any stand mixer really). Now the recipe was probably pretty good but the process is what was flawed in my opinion.
For me pancakes are all about being soft and light and fluffy. They should not be dense or chewy or gummy in any way. If I wanted that, I could make a trip to one of those all night breakfast joints and get a stack of hockey puck flap jacks.
For me pancakes need to be handled with care and attention. The reason is gluten. Now for a bit of food science. Gluten is a protein, actually it is a composition of 2 proteins named gliadin and glutenin. When water is added to wheat flour and then mechanically mixed, gluten forms. And it is this wonderful gluten that gives bread dough and pasta their chewy and elastic characteristics. But since the gluten content is increased by mechanical mixing or kneading, it is not something we ever want to do if we desire to have light and fluffy pancakes.
So, the next time you want to enjoy some pan fried goodness for breakfast, leave your mixer tucked neatly away. Instead, follow this basic cooking process.
To start, take your favorite recipe for pancakes. But this time, be careful at the stage when you mix the wet ingredients with the dry. Make sure to use separate bowls for the wet and dry ingredients.
Now, before you add the wet to the dry, get prepared. An electric griddle is probably the best appliance for cooking pancakes at home but if you have to use a frying pan, that will also work. There are 2 differences. An electric griddle has a built-in thermostat which means the heat will remain more constant than with a pan on the stove. Second, the griddle means you can cook a lot more pancakes at the same time. I use a pan on the stove myself but I never cook more than one pancake at a time and I keep them warm in the oven till ready to serve. It’s not the best but I have no more room to store a griddle so I chose not to buy one. Using my stove, I heat the pan for 2 minutes at level 5. Then I turn down the heat to 4 when cooking. If I notice that things are taking too long, I increase the heat for about another minute and then lower to 4 again.
With your cooking appliance hot and ready to go it is safe to make the batter. I prefer what is affectionately called the dump and stir method. The idea is to mix the wet and dry ingredients in about 12 seconds or less. So take the wet and dump them on top of the dry. Mix with a large spatula for a count of 12 and then immediately stop. Sometimes the batter does not get completely incorporated but that is ok because the cooking process will smooth things out.
You are now in a position to cook the pancakes. With your pan preheated place a large dollop of batter on it and wait for the bubbles to form around the edge. This normally takes about 2 minutes. The bubbles tells you that you can safely flip the pancake. It should be brown on the bottom and not pale. If it is not dark enough it usually means your heat is too low. Next carefully flip your pancake and cook the second side until it too is browned nicely.
Now please promise me you will use real maple syrup on your pancakes. The taste is 100 times better than the corn syrup gunk you find on your store shelves. The cost is a bit more but a large bottle will last a long time (unless you eat pancakes every weekend). You just made some great pancakes so you really should treat them to the best topping too.
This is my secret to making the most fluffy and light pancakes you can at home. So remember to leave your KitchenAid mixer for the really tough jobs like kneading bread and you will be fine.
Tags: Cooking
