Making memorable pancakes: a chef’s tips

Q: How can I make exceptional pancakes at home? A: Whether you’re at K-Days in Edmonton or the Stampede in Calgary, Albertans know and love a good pancake breakfast. Sadly, free-pancake season is limited in both cities, so if you want them more often, you’re going to have to learn how to make them at home.

ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen chef instructor J.P. has flipped more than a few pancakes in his time, and has learned plenty of tricks to making great pancakes.

Here are some of his pointers to help you up your game when batter meets hot griddle. Make them from scratch: Using a mix is easy, but it’s not much harder to make pancakes from scratch. If you’ve got the kitchen basics — flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, butter, and maybe a few other things — you should have what you need to make pancakes. And they really do taste better when you put in the minimal extra effort. Let it sit: Baking powder needs time to work. Give the batter a good five to 10 minutes to sit and expand before you put any in the pan. The delay also gives the pan time to heat up. Butter: Non-stick pan or not, it doesn’t hurt the taste to throw a little bit of butter in the pan before you pour in some batter. It gives a nice golden brown colour to the pancake, and helps keep things from sticking. Find the right heat: Mediumlow is usually ideal, though stoves and pans are all slightly different. As the pan heats and retains the warmth, the pancakes will become more consistent. Know when they’re ready to flip: As pancakes cook, little bubbles will pop through the uncooked batter’s surface. Once these little bubbles leave a small hole all the way through the pancake, it’s ready for flipping. There’s some trial and error involved, but this is a good starting point. Syrup: While the syrup at free pancake breakfasts is almost always maple-flavoured “pancake syrup,” feeding a smaller crowd at home means using real maple syrup is more of an option, cost-wise. Stock up when it’s on sale, but be sure to use it before the expiry date.