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Pancake Day, oh Pancake Day. No Shrove Tuesday would be worth its weight in eggs, milk and flour without stacks of steaming pancakes scattered around the kitchen. Originally a pagan holiday, round, hot pancakes were made on Shrove Tuesday to represent the sun and the reemergence of light and heat after winter. Now a Christian celebration of the last day before the fasting of Lent begins, the word ‘shrove’ comes from ‘shrive’, meaning to free yourself from sin. Historically and today, families would feast on foods in the house that wouldn’t last over Lent and pancakes were an easy way to use up milk, eggs and fats — giving rise to the French name Mardi Gras aka ‘fat Tuesday’. Whether you like to pile ’em high with berries and syrup or fold them swimming in lashings of lemon and sugar, here are our fail-safe tips for avoiding common mistakes that’ll leave you with (pan)cake on your face (or in bits, on the floor).
1. Don’t scrimp on ingredients
With so few ingredients in them in the first place, don’t be tempted to reach for years-old flour or raising agents. You’ll only enter into a doomed battle against sad saggy pancakes where the goal of light, fluffy discs will remain a Pinterest dream. Use the freshest eggs too because: a) this will really help any rise that’s dependent on separated, whisked egg whites and b) you owe it to your belly and your pancakes to use the freshest, higher welfare eggs you can get.
2. Leave the batter to rest
After whisking your wet and dry ingredients together until just combined, even if there’s a little lump or two in there, (beating with a heavy hand overworks the gluten, leading to a tough and chewy pancake and waving goodbye to lightness and fluff) leave that bowl of batter to rest. It might be the complete opposite of the thing you want to do — i.e. pour all of it into the pan at once to make mega pancake to eat straight away and dip in a bowl of your favourite nut butter like you would a carrot in hummus — but you have to be cruel to yourself to be kind to the pancake. Leave your batter to rest for 5 to 30 minutes. Use the chance to do a little clearing up or start on that melted chocolate topping. This allows time for the gluten to relax (how many times gluten, just calm it down) and will help give you soft, tender pancakes. This tip works a treat if you’re after a show-stopping high rise on Yorkshire puddings too.
3. Get your pan hot enough
But not too hot. You’ve come too far to fudge it all up now. Getting the temperature of your frying pan to the perfect side of hot, but not too hot, is an art that can make or break your precious pancakes. Thankfully, it’s nothing a few dollops of test batter can’t help you master. Although it’s tempting to crank up the heat, to avoid them looking like giant flabby Oreo cookies instead of the delicately crisped morsels you were after, start at a medium temperature and give your pan time to get nice and hot evenly. The fat in the pan should be hot, but not smoking. If it’s not hot enough, the pancake will take on the grease in the pan, rather than be cooked by it. If it’s too hot, they’ll go straight to burnt on the outside, raw and doughy on the inside. Stick to a medium heat and don’t be afraid to adjust accordingly to get them golden brown on the outside and cooked through on the inside.
4. Wait for the bubbles
Although super-quick to fry, patience with pancakes extends to the cooking process too. After spooning in the batter, when bubbles appear at the edges on the surface and the centre looks firm and set, this is your green light for flip time. That’s it. No more poking around with a spatula trying to peek at the bottom and hindering its ability to rise and cook evenly. No more sloppy/broken pancakes due to misjudged timings (or a pan that’s too cold). Simply dollop the batter, wait for the bubbles and the pancake to let you know when it’s ready to be flipped and everything will be okay.
5. Flip it, once
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the last point where any chances of major disaster are now looking slim. Just don’t get distracted by your phone, little ones or an urgent need to do anything else, because all that’s left to do now is to flip it and flip it once. This might sound a boring (okay, incredibly dull and too sensible a method to make what essentially will be a vehicle for glugs of maple syrup, chopped nuts and a potentially obscene amount of hundreds and thousands), but sticking to the one-flip rule will help prevent all that precious trapped air being knocked out and your pancakes deflating before your famished friends and family. Get your fun flips in with the first ones as these are usually the testers that pave the way for your pancake mastery to come (and you’ll probably get too hungry to keep flipping).
Top tip: After each one is done, place on a plate and top with a sheet greaseproof paper or baking parchment and keep them in the oven at 60°C to 90°C. Repeat with each new pancake and by the time you’ve cooked all of your batter, the first pancakes will still be warm and soft. If they don’t get eaten straight out of the pan that is.
Ready to go and need some inspo? Check out our fluffy American-style pancakes, classic crepes and savoury spinach pancakes. Grab everything you need for Pancake Day at www.farmdrop.com. Have stories of pancake failure or epic success? Reveal all below!
