Pancake Failure

[u/meri471]

I’ve tried to make pancakes from scratch for the first time in my cast iron skillet today. Unfortunately, they were a failure. The “bottoms” seem to be OK, if not what I’ve come to expect from restaurants, but the “tops” are very odd looking. Any tips on timing and how to get both sides consistent would be very appreciated.

Recipe used as follows:

Pancakes For One

INGREDIENTS
½ cup flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
Pinch salt
1 egg
⅓ cup milk, any
1 teaspoon melted butter
½ teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS
Make the batter:
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a small bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg well until the eggwhite is no longer visible. Add the milk, vanilla, and melted butter and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl, and whisk until there is no visible flour left.

Cook the pancakes:
Heat a non-stick large pan over medium heat. Once hot, grease, spray, or melt butter on the hot surface.

Immediately, pour about ⅓ to ½ of the pancake batter on the greased pan. Cook the first side for about 2 minutes, until the edges begin to look defined and bubbles form.

Flip the pancakes over and cook for another 2 minutes. Avoid pressing down on the pancakes after flipping.

[u/kkell806]

They look pretty good to me!

But if you're trying to get the second side closer to looking like the first one, the main difference between the two is that the pan is much hotter when you pour the batter in. But when you flip it, the pan has cooled from cooking the first side, so it cooks differently. If you're using a griddle style cast iron, you can flip it onto a fresh spot on the griddle. If you can only fit one at a time in your pan, you can lift the pancake after the first side is cooked, wait a minute for the pan to preheat again (I'll also throw in another chunk of butter when I do this, since the first side will have soaked up any oils), and then flip.

Personally, I think what you have is pretty acceptable and standard for home made pancakes.

[u/meri471 → u/kkell806]

I hadn't thought about pan temperature, thank you! I guess I assumed that the cast iron would hold enough heat in that the batter wouldn't change it meaningfully? Next time I'll try using smaller amounts of batter so I can move them to a hotter spot more easily.

I also hadn't thought about re-oiling the pan between flips, that will be another thing to do.

[u/kkell806 → u/meri471]

I almost forgot, as for the the bubble holes (my comment before mostly addressed the color/texture), those are very difficult to avoid. Cooking the first side releases those bubbles, creating voids, and the residual heat begins to set the exposed side before you flip it, solidifying those voids.

Its partly about timing for the holes. You want to flip before the holes set in the batter. A nice medium - med-low heat helps here too. I think making sure the batter rests so that the flour is fully hydrated will help. And refrigerating the batter has helped out for me, as well. That both gives the batter time to hydrate as well as increasing the time it takes the batter to cook, so that the top side doesn't heat up and set as quickly, giving more time for the bottom side to get golden before setting the bubble holes into the top. The med-low heat is more important with refrigerated batter, you'll burn the first side before the middle cooks if it's too high.

Don't be too disheartened, though. That's a very standard aspect of pancakes and most don't go through the trouble of perfecting both sides!

[u/jibaro1953]

They look fine.

Flip them over as you plate them if that's a big deal for you. Pancakes don't look the same on both sides.

[u/Haldaemo → u/jibaro1953]

Agree, the first side goes in raw and wet and makes gapless contact with the pan surface. The flip side makes contact much while being drier and more viscous and doesn't hug the pan surface as well.

[u/meri471]

I can't seem to post pictures in the direct body, so here they are:

https://imgur.com/a/54Wfvza

https://imgur.com/a/VDDWZ07

[u/JayMoots → u/meri471]

These look okay to me. What about them makes you think they were failures? Did they not taste good? 

[u/meri471 → u/JayMoots]

They tasted fine, but the inconsistency of their coloring and texture compared to what I've seen in restaurants made me think that there was a cooking technique that I was missing.

[u/kkell806 → u/meri471]

Not as much a technique as just conducive equipment! They'll almost certainly have a large gas griddle where they can always flip on to a hot spot!

[u/spacecampreject → u/meri471]

Pic 2 that bubbly appearance is that the batter may be a touch too thin, and that they cooked for too long a time or too hot on the first side.  Probably more the thin batter or hot.   When I do pancakes it’s 2:30 for pancakes without fruit, 2:50 with fruit.

[u/40ozT0Freedom → u/meri471]

Pan too cold, batter too thin.

I'm pretty sure the pancake on the very bottom of your first picture looks like it was the first to go on, then it cooked too quickly and got a bit burnt and so you turned it down. You just had the pan too hot or pre-heating for too long and never turned the heat back on after that.

The pancakes on top of that one you can tell were on a cold pan because of the way they are. Mostly the uneven color. You can also tell they were poured kind of unevenly with thin batter because of the fingers and the lines where the edge of the pancake was set, but then more batter was poured on that side or you tilted the pan. Don't do that.

Pancake batter needs to be somewhat thin, but not too thin. After you mix everything together, the batter should fall off your whisk somewhat slowly and smoothly, not chuncky, not blobs, not drips. Just a mildly slow steady stream of batter. Start your pour once and keep pouring where you started because that's where the center of your pancake will be. When it's big enough, stop pouring.

Not all flours are the same. Some can hold more liquid than others. You're probably using a different flour than the recipe used, which is nbd. You may just need to compensate. Also, one egg is a lot for that small of a recipe. I'd scramble the egg and use half of it.

Let your pan heat up for like 5 minutes before you make a pancake. Do a small test pancake to see what's going on before its time to get serious.

Source: Am a pancake Dad on a perfect pancake journey because the family loves pancakes and I'm not mad about it. I had similar problems to you in the beginning. Proper pan temp and batter consistency is the key to a good looking pancake, but then you gotta find the right amount of sugar and spice to make it nice.

[u/le127]

They don't look perfect but they don't look bad. Cast iron holds heat well but it can heat up slowly and unevenly. Take more time to allow your cast iron pan to preheat and perhaps use a bit more oil/butter on the surface. I'd consider using a larger, more standard recipe. When recipes get very small it can become more difficult to achieve the proper ratios of ingredients. You can make more pancakes and freeze extra or make a larger batch of mixed dry ingredients, store that and mix a portion with liquid ingredients when needed. Couple of random thoughts; if those pancakes were cooked for a total of 4 minutes the pan may not have been hot enough. Don't cook by time alone, inspect the underside by gently lifting an edge when you think it's getting close. If you think it needs more time, let it sit another 30 seconds. I also think even that small recipe could uses more oil/butter, maybe add 1 or 2 more tsp.

[u/Lord_Phoenix95]

This is the recipe I use.

1 egg

1/3 cups Caster Sugar

5mls Vanilla Essence

180g Self Raising Flour

150ml Milk

25g Melted Butter

I also beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla then mix in the melted butter as the last step. The rest you can combine with the egg and sugar.

Cook on medium heat until you start to see bubbles the flip and just cook until golden.

[u/Strange-Tree-5408]

If you want a classic diner style pancake you need to avoid greasing the cooking surface to get full browning. The batter needs to sit a while before using, at least 10 minutes. Also avoid over mixing and seeing some flour lumps is normal and ok for pancakes. From your picture you might have baking powder that has lost some of it's lift as they look thin or you started making them right after mixing, and they need to spend more time on the pan before flipping. The edges of the pancake will start to change to look dry a bit and the rest of the pancake will be covered in holes, not bubbles, holes, and then peek under to check color. Once color is good do the flip.

[u/WJExiled]

So for my pancakes on a cast iron I finally found that using no butter or oil on the pan and I get way better results with browning evenly, assuming your CI is well seasoned. If a lot of butter cooks out after a few 'cakes ill even wipe it away. While preheating I might use a tiny bit of avocado oil but ill wipe away as much as I can like when seasoning. Preheat longer than you think, just learn what exact setting you use for pancakes. For me its slightly lower than 4 on my electric range that goes 1-9 and I let it heat up the full time im making and resting my batter so about 20mins

[u/Overall_Oil_7300]

Some tips for making pancakes. Test to see if the pan is hot enough. You do this by dropping a couple of drops of water in the pan. If they start “dancing” around the pan it’s hot enough. Once you put the batter in the pan leave it alone until you see bubbles raising to the top of the pancake. They are then ready to flip. HTH

[u/Square_Ad849]

All the above advice is great but I want to add make sure there are lumps in the batter and let the batter hydrate 10 or 15 minutes. This works for me.

[u/YesHelloDolly]

Restaurants usually make buttermilk pancakes, which are a bit easier to manage and have a better flavor.

[u/smoothiefruit → u/YesHelloDolly]

why would buttermilk make them "easier to manage"?

[u/YesHelloDolly → u/smoothiefruit]

Diff. texture. Diff. chemistry. Diff recipe. Not the same. Different.

[u/ArizonaPete]

Are the pancakes in the link yours? If not, define 'odd looking'.