How do restaurants get nice round pancakes? Every recipe I can find for pancakes are all about how fluffy they are. The last ones I made were ½” thick but came out all lopsided because the batter didn’t spread out on the griddle. I tried adding an extra ¼ cup buttermilk but it didn’t seem to help and they ended up with a very noticeable buttermilk tang.
I want to pour the batter from the bowl, not spoon it out.
I have the same issue with waffles, although yeast-raised waffles are better than leavening-raised.
The batter is to thick to pour from one of those. I have a bowl with a pour spout but have to use a spatula to get it to come out in a reasonable amount. And if you look at the images they all show a thin batter.
If your batter is too thick to pour from a dispenser, you’ve found the root cause of your lopsided pancakes.
Being a parent of young boys, I’ve made about 16,000 pancakes in the past 5 years and they’ve all been approximately circular, even just pouring the batter from a measuring cup.
Put the batter in a squeeze-type ketchup bottle. Rinse out a plastic Heinz bottle, unless you like your pancakes oddly flavored. Enlarge the dispensing hole if you have to. Circularity awaits!
I like pancakes, and I have a 2-year-old. I’ve made probably 5000 pancakes in the last month alone. The dispenser isn’t this person’s problem. A pancake batter that sounds more like cookie dough or something is the problem. If it’s too thick, add more liquid. It doesn’t have to be buttermilk. Regular milk, water, beer, all work.
Yup. My favorite breakfast place has a thing like a funnel with a trigger that releases a measured amount of batter straight down that spreads in a very even circle.
All of the above, plus practice. When I make rotis they also don’t come out perfectly round, because I haven’t practiced enough, but I used to make perfect rotis when I was making them often. That’s practice on the dough (batter) consistency as well as the cooking therein.
I personally don’t bother with anything but a measuring cup or pour straight from the mixing bowl. If you pour straight down and have the correct consistency, you pretty much naturally will get a circle, unless you have a particularly uneven stovetop. And, even then, you can correct it by swirling the pan in the correct direction to compensate for any lopsidedness.
Most restaurants in the Raleigh area serve pancakes that are thick, tasteless and gummy. Brigs is an exception. Original Pancake House has yet to discover how many frustrated customers wait them here. Forty-Niner Flapjacks…yum…yum…
In other words, I like my pancakes thin and fried in bacon grease, if possible. My heaven idea are all the cakes made this way you can eat in 24000 years.
thick, gummy round cakes are useless for man or beast. The dog won’t eat them unless you put sausage underneath.
I saw a chef preparing pancakes at a fancy buffet once, and he used a ladle, started with a glob of dough in the middle of the grill, then, with the ladle in the upright position, went around and around in ever increasing circles, dabbing the bottom of the ladle into the dough every little bit. He actually go down on his knees to watch the dabbing. I suppose he was trying to enlarge the circle without creating thick and thin spots.
Flip the cakes the second you see any bubbles. Yes, buttermilk recipes are tastier.
