Here’s a little Sunday morning query: do you have a favorite/reliable/family/standby pancake recipe?
I want to make an effort to add the basics to my repertoire. I can do pancakes. With your carefully time tested recipe.
GorgeousGoodness
An honest attempt to cook wholesome deliciousness
GorgeousGoodness 
Belatedly, YES! A Joy of Cooking recipe, which is my favorite and endlessly adaptable. I actually have a cookbook of just pancake recipes that are variations on that original recipe (plus some toppings) that someday I will publish. Here’s the basic one:
Better than Basic Pancake Recipe
I first discovered this recipe in the Joy of Cooking when I was looking for a basic pancake recipe. I have scarcely modified it at all from the original. Except, you know, in the rest of the recipes. This recipe is endlessly adaptable, as you’ll see.
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
1 beaten egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 to 1 ¼ cups milk
Preheat your greased skillet (I use enameled cast iron) over medium-low-ish heat.
In a medium or large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together to combine.
In a separate bowl, microwave the butter a few seconds at a time until melted (or melt in a small saucepan over the stove). Cool butter if very hot (it will cook the egg if too hot).
Add butter to dry ingredients, break egg on top and use whisk to beat the egg into the butter, then add milk and stir with whisk until batter is smooth. Add more milk until batter is of pouring consistency, but not too runny (you’ll learn by look and feel with time, so you won’t even need to measure your milk and pour straight from the bottle).
Using a small measuring cup (I like 1/3 or ¼ cups), measure the batter into the skillet. If you’re new to pancakes, try just one or two cakes at a time. If you’re skilled with a spatula, you can do three (like I do).
Now wait for a bit (I often read a book standing at the stove while making pancakes) and when the batter is starting to look cooked at the edges and is full of bubbles, go ahead and flip. Wait time on the other side is much less. When done, use spatula to transfer to the waiting dish towel and plate. Repeat until done.
Serve hot with real maple syrup or any variety of toppings.This recipe makes approximately twelve six-inch pancakes.
Thank you so much!!!! I’ll try this out either this weekend or nest. Mister requests pancakes every weekend, I’ve always made them from the boxed mix and recently decided I can conquer the kitchen and don’t need that boxed junk!
Making them from scratch takes just a few more minutes (if that) and tastes WAAAAY better. You won’t be disappointed. They’re also lovely cold and if you have any extra batter (I usually double the recipe), they can be baked into muffin pans or cake pans to make a cake. It’s especially good with fruit baked in. Let me know how it goes!
Pingback: Trial and Error | GorgeousGoodness
Breakfast Hash! It feels so easy! Grab a cast iron pan (or skillet that can go in the oven), add potatoes and onions (some oil), Plus anything else: apples, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, cook until soft, add eggs on top, pop in oven (375 degrees?) for 4-6 minutes until egg whites look glossy.
Other ways to do it involve cooking bacon in the skillet before hand and using that grease for the potatoes instead of oil, then crumbling the bacon in the dish at the end. I don’t eat meat, but sometimes when the cast iron needs seasoning, I’ll do this and feed the bacon to the others helping ingest the food.
Boya3706, I always want to make a good hash but things get soggy instead of crispy. Is my pan not hot enough? The oil I’m using? HELP!
Hmmm. One of the reasons I use a cast iron skillet is because I don’t have to use as much oil and the heat is consistent once its up to temp. Maybe its a matter of not letting the hash items cook long enough? 15-20 minutes depending on the vegetables you put in, and only stirring infrequently. It takes a while but is really hands off, which is why I love making it.
I looked at a recipe really quick for non cast iron and 2 tbs bacon fat (or oil, or butter and wait to melt) start at high heat and go to medium when you add potatoes. This will create a sear that could stop the sogginess as well. I look forward to the experiment that determines the cause of the sogginess!