I ran a private taste test between a national chain restaurant and a local State-O-Maine chain. Both produced extremely LARGE FAT DOUGHY buttermilk pancakes. Which I dislike intensely.
Does anyone else feel this way? Where are the thin, delicate, nicely-browned pancakes?
WHERE ARE BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES??? Skinny ones??? Which I prefer.
Guess I’ll have to make 'em myself.
Annnd … sourdough pancakes (if not too thick) from ALASKA may beat all.
Opine away 
I’m still trying to replicate pancakes that brown evenly like this, without round bubble patterns like this. I use a cast iron skillet, and I have reduced the heat, but then they don’t brown at all, or for a very long time, by which time the top is dry, white batter. That’s why I prefer to make waffles. 
The “49er Flapjacks” at The Original Pancake House are my favorite, but I like fluffy pancakes, too.
Like burgers*, pancakes are pretty easy to cook at home, and I’ve yet to find a restaurant that makes pancakes noticeably better than mine. The only reason we ever go to a pancake place is because occasionally it’s nice to take my son to a kid-friendly restaurant, which obviously includes pancake places.
The secret (or at least my secret, anyway) is fruit, mainly bananas, but anything else I can toss in. Overripe bananas, particularly if they practically fall apart when you peel them, are God’s gift to pancakes. And then if you also have blueberries, bits of strawberries or peaches, etc. to toss in, so much the better. And like with the bananas, other fruits seem to work best if they’ve been around a bit long for eating them straight, but they haven’t gone bad yet, just a little mushy.
*Off topic, I’ve finally found one restaurant that makes a better burger than mine. That brie-and-onion cheeseburger is out of this world.
What’s in the far right pic? It looks like hermit crab :dubious:
A bacon cheeseburger of some sort, is all I can tell.
Have you tried thinning the batter out a bit?
You can try thinning out the batter, but in my experience, that is a too much oil in the skillet problem and you’re almost deep-frying the pancakes.
I prefer my pancakes thin, flexible, and crepe-like, and make them that way at home. But Pepper Mill and MiliCal like “fat” pancakes. Most breakfast places seem to agree with them.
I made pancakes yesterday and had the bubble pattern when I used too much oil and had the evenly brown ones when I did not use any oil.
Professional cook here, with years of experience at breakfast cooking. Inner Stickler has it right. I always make pancakes on a dry griddle. Oil will create a barrier between the batter and the griddle, preventing browning.
I like to fry mine in a little butter, because we like the crispy browned-butter edges that result. I usually make my cake batter with a dollop of vanilla extract and a teaspoon of Penzey’s Baking Spice mixed in. Top with real maple syrup. With the addition of fruit to the above, you end up with pancakes that taste like pie.
Amusing anecdote:
I cooked in a diner where we deliberately made the pancakes fat and fluffy. Occasionally somebody would order “thin” pancakes, which always made me grumble because I’d have to scoop some batter into a new bowl and stir in more water, which was a hassle if we were busy at the time.
There was this one regular customer (who we all liked very much) who always sat at the end of the counter closest to the kitchen, and he’d heard me grumbling in the past. So one morning he ordered a single pancake. He watched and waited until I had ladled the batter onto the grill, and then said, with a grin, “Could you make that thin?”
So I flipped the pancake and then picked up the nearby meat-tenderizer mallet and made like I was going to pound the pancake “thinner”.
“Oh no, don’t do that!” he cried, “They’ll charge me for a waffle!”
Have you tried Bisquick pancakes? Pops raised us one those so I have quite a bias. They come out the thickness and brownness of the first photo you linked, with some of the bubble lacing of the second link for good looks.
My friend raves about her sister’s pancakes. She uses yeast (If I remember correctly) and lets the batter sit overnight. My friend was always going to get the recipe for me but hasn’t as yet.
A restaurant I’ve been to has interesting pancakes. Outside, they look like your average pancake but inside, it is mostly air. The bubbles are so big that they join together and batter has to form columns to support the top and bottom layers. They’re fat but not doughy and are very good tasting. Perhaps they use a recipe similar to my friend’s sister’s. The restaurant doesn’t have much else to recommend itself, so I haven’t been there in years. But every time I go by or someone mentions it, I think of those pancakes.
The second pic looks better, IMO.
Really? That second pic looks to me like overdone outside+underdone middle. I would not be surprised to find the innards cool or even still batter.
My wife and I prefer fluffy pancakes. I use Krustez as a basic mix even though I prefer others. Rather than milk/water, I mix in a container of flavored yoghurt and chopped up pieces of fruit. Then thin the batter to whatever consistency I want. Then comes the step that gives me puffy pancakes…I wait and let the batter rise and then cook on a non-oiled grill. Totally yummy, without adding syrup or anything else.
I can cook them lighter in color for my wife, but I prefer a golden color with a hint of crispiness on a few of the edges.
Different tastes and all that…
Fat, skinny, who cares. The important thing is to have real maple syrup on them.
Was at a family restaurant this weekend, and had their pancakes, which were excellent. The syrup, on the other hand was slimy and glutinous. Bletch.
I will try all of these this weekend.
Looking at the picture again, if there really are only two pancakes in that stack, yeah they are far too thick. I was mostly commenting that I like them a little crispy on the outside, thick or thin. The ones in the first picture look like those bland, mushy Holiday Inn pancakes you get off a conveyor belt.
