4 Levels of Pancakes: Amateur to Food Scientist

[cracking egg] [liquid pouring]

[pan sizzling] [grater scraping]

[upbeat music]

Hi, I'm Stephen and this is my pancake recipe.

Hi, I'm Beth and this is

the Demino family pancake recipe.

Hi, I'm Penny

and I've been professional chef for 15 years.

[upbeat music]

I came up with this because I got tired

of the monotony of regular pancakes

and I really wanted to shake it up.

My children loved pancakes when they were growing up.

We make them all the time.

This is my pancake recipe

that I make on any Sunday morning

that my husband is willing to do the dishes.

[suspenseful music]

We have our pancake mix,

already prepared in this bowl.

I start with the flour

Obviously there's flour here.

So that's a little bit of whole wheat flour.

I replaced some of the all purpose flour with.

And then, of course, there's a little bit of sugar,

'cause you gotta have sugar. Gotta have sugar.

Two whole brown eggs.

There's a lot of shells in there.

And then we have our chemical leaveners.

We have baking powder and baking soda.

To help them rise.

Cut about half of the cheesecake.

Ooh.

This is breaking up the monotony.

There you go.

And then you just wanna kinda break it up.

Oh geez, this is...

More of an arm workout than I would like.

I always start with a cup of milk.

And then we'll follow up with our buttermilk.

This is some graham cracker sprinkles.

It added a little je ne sais quoi.

Don't know what that means though.

This is the important part.

Don't overmix it.

I don't wanna overmix this.

And you wanna make sure that you mix it thoroughly.

[Penny] That's it, that's the batter.

Now we're gonna cook the pancakes.

All right, so now onto the fun bacon part.

This is where the magic is

really happening in this recipe.

I'm gonna take the bacon.

And we're gonna chop it into small pieces.

Then just one down through the center for good measure.

And what I like to do to grease the pan

is to use some vegetable oil on a piece of paper towel,

or a kitchen towel.

I like the way oil works better

with the pancakes than the butter.

[Stephen] You wanna take a good chunk of butter.

So I don't really need to overgrease this,

but I'm gonna make sure that the pancake doesn't stick.

Before I make the pancakes

I always like to do a tester pancake

to make sure that the pan is hot

and the consistency of the batter

is exactly where I want it.

My skillet's nice and hot.

It's preheated to a good medium, medium high temperature.

Then I'll pour my batter into the center.

So this is the first pancake.

The first pancake is not usually your best pancake.

Most often it ends up actually in the garbage.

Some say the first pancake never comes out perfect.

I go against some.

And now we wait.

Waiting for pancakes is one of the hardest things

you can do in the world.

[singing]

That's a nice color on both sides.

This is just [laughing].

So rule of thumb, we always try

to throw away the first pancake.

It's burnt, if we're gonna be honest.

It's burnt.

[scraping]

All right.

Wish me luck.

Ah!

It's a mess.

I told ya, the first one.

Now that our testing pancake came out great,

let's make four more.

Now we're gonna go in for round two.

[Beth] Put some blueberries on.

Candied bacon.

I like a piece of bacon in every forkful of pancake.

I think I'm romanticizing.

Now we wait for the bubbles.

But it's still not ready. Mother's intuition.

You know when to flip the pancakes

when you see lots of bubbles on top,

and the bubbles start to pop.

The bubbles are already starting to release.

I'm supposed to flip it four times.

So about twice on each side.

I only like to turn my pancakes once.

[Penny] It's gonna do what it does.

There we have a beautiful blueberry pancake.

Nice lift when I turned it, thank you baking powder.

So you have the bubbles on the first side

that tell you when to flip, but you don't have

that kind of benefit on the second side.

So anyplace that little bit of batter escaped

when I flipped it, that's kind of my guide.

Once I see that look more dry,

then I know maybe I'm okay.

Now we're gonna make our toppings.

Always start with some nice butter.

Butter.

[Beth] That will melt on our warm pancakes.

So the brown butter that was in the pancake recipe,

we only used three tablespoons of that.

But I went ahead and made the entire pound of butter

brown butter, because why not?

I'm gonna chop the strawberries.

Pour the strawberry syrup on top of the strawberries.

First we'll put the maple syrup

so that the blueberries will stick to the syrup.

Nobody likes maple syrup.

We're gonna start with a bourbon maple syrup.

We're gonna take a vanilla bean.

Split that down the center.

And scrape down the pod

with the back of a paring knife.

Gonna scrape that into there.

And add the bean as well.

Pinch of salt.

Bourbon, lots of it.

And we're gonna bring this up to a simmer.

The easiest way to get it to a consistent simmer

is to first bring it up to a boil

and then as soon as it hits a boil, turn it down.

And we're gonna let that hang out for about

10 to 15 minutes so that all the flavors blend together.

Blueberries, and a final flourish

of a little lemon zest.

Then you take the syrup and lather it on.

You can even pour it.

Ooh that looks good.

Then I'm gonna drizzle it

over the top of my pancakes.

And no joke, I'm also gonna put it in a small pitcher

and serve it alongside because the amount of syrup

on the top is never enough.

So I really like a little bit of a fruity element

with my pancakes, and so I made an apple butter.

Apple butter is like applesauce,

but it's cooked way longer.

And very rich, and a lot of the moisture's been cooked out.

So I like to just serve this alongside my pancakes.

And dip in as I go.

Let's dig in.

My husband's gonna be so jealous that I ate these.

These are my pancakes.

[upbeat music]

I see where I messed up.

But it's really good.

Oh my god, they're so good. That's so good.

[drumming]

The dry ingredients in pancake mix

are flour, salt, sugar, and leaveners.

Stephen bought that mix.

This is in fact store bought pancake mix.

And Beth made that mix.

They're essentially the same thing.

And it's a lot less expensive.

Quick breads like pancakes are leavened

with chemical leaveners,

either baking powder or baking soda.

Stephen and Beth both used baking powder

in their pancake batter.

Mother's intuition.

Baking powder is a mixture of sodium bicarbonate,

which is basic or alkaline.

And a mixture of acids.

The mixture of an acidic compound and a basic compound

will come together and produce carbon dioxide gas

in our batter, and make it rise or lift when it's baking.

Thank you baking powder.

Penny's pancake batter has

baking soda and baking powder.

Baking soda, when combined with an acidic component,

like the buttermilk in her batter,

will help to produce more carbon dioxide bubbles

than our level one and level two chefs,

creating product that will rise even more.

Those are the cold hard facts.

This is also gonna produce an even browner final product.

Color's good, it's nice and brown.

A little bit caramelized on the top.

Because the Maillard reaction,

or the combination of a reducing sugar

and the amino acids found in the batter

are favorable in a basic environment.

So that's that.

Each of our chefs use a different kind

of dairy product in their pancake batter.

Beth used whole milk.

I always start with a cup of milk.

[Scientist] And Penny used buttermilk.

Buttermilk, brown butter,

two of the secrets in the liquid ingredients.

Buttermilk is more acidic than whole milk,

and will provide a deeper flavor than the whole milk.

Anywhere that I can add things

to make it more interesting, I like to try to do that.

[Scientist] Stephen used cheesecake in his batter,

which will make it resemble more of a cake

than a pancake.

It will be less fluffy and have a tighter crumb.

It doesn't look good.

Penny's dry mix looked similar to Stephen's

and Beth's mix, but she added whole wheat flour

to create a complex flavor in her final pancake.

I'm not trying to be healthy, no joke.

[Scientist] Stephen vigorously stirred his pancake batter.

More of an arm workout than I would like.

Beth and Penny both stirred their pancake batter

just until the dry ingredients were wet and dampened.

But if it's smooth, and not lumpy,

it won't be right.

It just won't.

Overstirring produces gluten strands

that tunnel through the pancake batter.

This will produce a chewy and elastic product.

As opposed to a fluffy pancake.

[drumming]

Cooking a pancake over a moderate or medium heat

will ensure that the browning happens on the outside

of the pancake at the same rate that the inside cooks.

I don't really like it mushy in the middle.

As soon as bubbles start to form on the top

of the pancake it's ready to flip.

[Beth] Bubble action.

This shows that the carbon dioxide

is giving leavening or rise to the pancake,

and it's ready to turn over to the other side.

Stephen flipped his pancake before we saw

the carbon dioxide bubbles break the surface of his pancake.

[bleeping]

This is because he stirred the mixture vigorously

and removed a lot of that leavening power

from the baking powder.

And he used heavy and dense ingredients like cheesecake

that is gonna weigh down his product.

I thought I was ready for level two.

But I think I'm right where I belong.

People often use the first pancake

as a test to see if the heat is at

the right temperature in their pan.

A good example of this is Stephen's first pancake.

The bottom got a little bit too brown

before the middle could cook.

It's burnt.

If we're gonna be honest.

He then adjusted his heat to make sure

that the next pancakes were cooked evenly.

After being flipped once the pancakes

will start to rise again.

If you continue to flip the pancakes back and forth

you're gonna push out all of the carbon dioxide

built up in the pancake and it won't be as fluffy.

You don't make these pancakes like I do.

You're just a scientist.

One flip is ideal for making pancakes.

Multiple flips will create a flatter pancake

by taking out some of the carbon dioxide in the batter.

Stephen didn't mix anything into his pancakes.

Beth used blueberries in her mix.

And Penny used candied bacon.

Oh this smells incredible.

[Scientist] When adding something into the pancake mix,

the lower the sugar content

the less likely it's going to burn.

Blueberries are a good option in pancake mix

because when exposed to direct heat

they won't burn as quickly as a higher sugar product

You can't have too many blueberries on blueberry pancakes.

High sugar mix ins like Penny's candied bacon

can burn at a faster rate than the pancakes cook.

[Penny] Sprinkle the remaining candied bacon

over the top of this baby.

It is advisable to have a high level of expertise

when adding high sugar products into your pancake mix.

This will help to avoid burning.

[drumming]

Each chef chose a thoughtful array of toppings

to pair with their pancakes.

Stephen paired his pancakes with fresh cut strawberries

and strawberry syrup.

Ooh, that looks good.

Beth paired her pancakes with maple syrup,

blueberries, and butter, with a little bit of lemon zest

to help brighten the overall flavor.

That's wonderful.

Penny added apple butter, bourbon maple syrup,

spiced brown butter, and candied bacon to her pancakes.

Everybody has their own individual way

of topping a pancake.

You can layer on similar flavors,

or combine different tastes, flavors,

and textures to create an overall

more unique sensory profile.

The next time you're flipping out on Sunday morning

take some of the tips from this video

to make your next pancakes.