What is the nutritional difference, if any, between pancake batter and cooked pancakes?
The initial phase of digestion of cooked starch is begun in the mouth, where the enzyme ptyalin in the saliva breaks it into double sugars. The process is completed in the upper part of the small intestine, where any starch not already acted on by the ptyalin is broken to double sugars, double sugars to single sugars, and the other single sugars to glucose.
To the extent it’s processed at all, uncooked starch is handled in the intestine, and I gather large parts of the nutrients are not adequately dealt with. I may be in error on this last assertion, though.
Heat will break down various nutrients, changing the overall nutrient value. Cooking will convert the contents of the batter, especially during browning. Some of this should amount to a caloric loss.
Water is a nutrient, and cooked pancakes contain less water than the batter they are made from. A cooked pancake is not just dried batter, so the loss is pretty small. Yeast cakes will have some of the original nutrients converted to other ones by the little fungi, but there shouldn’t be much difference between the batter just before cooking and after. If the pancakes are cooked with oil or butter in the pan, they will absorb some of that during the cooling process.
Also, it has been proven to be impossible to eat cooked pancakes without the addition of syrup, honey, sugar, butter, or other substances that evolved for the purpose of making pancakes even more delicious. I suppose starving people in the absence of those extras could force down some pancakes though. But it would be cruel to give a starving person pancakes without at least some honey. In addition, the ability to convert the nutrients in pancakes to useful nutrients is also affected by the amount of bacon eaten at the same time. That’s why the most nutricious pancakes include bacon fat in the batter recipe.
If the batter contains raw eggs, salmonella could start growing in your intestines. This will produce a huge addition of nutrients that follow consumption as the little bugs feed on your intestinal lining. Unfortunately your intestines aren’t going to be able to process those nutrients, or any others you consume in the time frame of the active infection. But they will taste just as good when you are eating them.
All of these factors are going to vary across the range of pancake types. But you specified batter cakes. Still, these can include corn cakes, whole wheat of white, buckwheat cakes (not really wheat), matzo meal pancakes (many nutrients removed in the original process of making the matzo before mealing). It is debatable whether other forms such as egg white cakes, and potato pan cakes are made from a batter. But the same general conversion and addition processes remain. The most nutricious pancakes known to man are TriPolar’s 9" buckwheat flapjacks, with butter and honey. The fine art of flipping them with a toss of the pan increases the nutritional value in some way. Some people apply tree sap to the finished product, but I assumed Canadians weren’t being considered because of the scientific nature of the question. The standard portion, all of them, is rarely consumed if other people are aware of their existence.
We now interrupt this thread…
From the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (radio)
…and now back to your regularly scheduled thread
As is well known, Gracie Allen was logically challenged. Adding water will produce a mix of pancakes and waffles.
Thanks, TriPolar and Polycarp. So I guess what you’re saying is that I shouldn’t eat pancake batter. My inner child died a little more today (from salmonella).
Eat pancake batter without raw eggs if you like. The nutritional difference can’t be all much before and after cooking. There is something meandering around the internet tubes about old pancake mix containing a deadly fungus or something. So if you don’t mix it from scratch, don’t use an old mix that contains a deadly fungus.
If I were going to eat pancake batter, which I don’t find any more likely than eating grass because it eventually becomes a porterhouse, I would definitely use bacon fat, chocolate chips, lots of sugar or honey, and a little cinnamon.
No raw eggs, I’m using instant pancake mix. I don’t think there’s a deadly fungus… oh well. Fortune favors the bold amirite?
That sounds like a medical question. You should consult a doctor. Or is that about a magazine and laundry soap?
Hey, I can’t just run to a doctor every time I’m infected with deadly fungus. I have a life to live.
So did that fungus. Before you ate it. 
You can eat the last 2 pancakes without any any syrup, etc., if you use them to make a sandwich with bacon (especially canadian bacon) between them.
Did the remainder of the sentence you cut off mean anything to you?
Bacon does not have only nutritional value.
I can eat all the pancakes I make without the addition of syrup, honey, sugar, and/or butter. I add fresh blueberries and a banana to the batter, along with ground walnuts and pecans. I also use whole wheat flour. Instead of using milk only, I also add soymilk. In addition, the real key to keeping them moist is to add some yogurt.
Those who eat bacon care naught for nutritional value. Now butter your bacon, boy!
Cooked and processed foods, which otherwise are considered equal in caloric content, differ in that cooked and processed foods are more easily absorbed by the body.
.
“If you’re gonna have a cookie, have a cookie.”
Pancakes are usually fried in a pan, hence the name. The pan is usually greased with oil, shortening or lard. These will add calories.
I add one tablespoon of olive oil to the batter and use an oil spray on the pan. Although this adds calories, olive oil is a healthy oil. Moreover, in baking cookies, sugar is usually used. I add no sugar.
Why go to all the trouble of making the batter? Why not just open the package and eat the powder?