The secret to fluffy pancakes is fresh ingredients. Always make sure your ingredients are fresh before you start.
That includes your baking soda and baking powder, as well as your flour, eggs, milk and buttermilk (if your using it).
Following Steps In A Recipe Is Essential
Never skip the first step of your recipe. That is incorporating dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.
The “separate bowls” part is actually where most of the mixing is done. When you combine the two together, it is delicately done so, by folding the mixtures together or “just until combined.”
You don’t want to over mix. Just until combined, actually means that. With every additional stirring beyond the just combined step, you are making your pancakes a little tougher and less fluffy.
Here is an example of what happens when you over mix, as an example, cupcake batter – the one on the left was mixed until just combined per instructions. The one on the right was mixed too long.
Food Facts & Cooking Tips
The fluffier the batter (or the more air pockets) the fluffier the pancakes.
The baking soda starts to react as soon as it is combined with or comes in contact with liquid. Therefore, allowing your pancake batter to rest, say about 15-30 minutes, the baking soda will continue to works it magic, that is creating and expanding into thousands of tiny pockets of carbon dioxide.
Baking soda is an alkaline that, when it comes into contact with an acidic ingredient, produces carbon dioxide and lightens the dough.
As for buttermilk it can improve the texture of your pancakes. It also helps make them moist and tender by breaking down gluten.
Buttermilk ensures that all the baking soda will get used or do it’s trick of making a fluffy, tender pancake.
Keep in mind that baking powder is an acidic. That is why in all recipes that call for baking soda, baking powder is required to activate the soda’s ability to cause carbon dioxide.
Since buttermilk is an acidic substance, you can omit the baking powder from this recipe.
Homemade Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes With Blueberry Syrup
For The Blueberry Syrup
1/3 cup cold water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 1/4 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
In 2-quart saucepan, beat cold water and cornstarch with whisk until cornstarch is dissolved.
Next add the blueberries, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring frequently and mashing blueberries with a potato masher.
Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. The mixture will thicken slightly as it cools (store any leftovers in a mason jar with a tight lid – use within 8-10 days).
For The Buttermilk Pancakes
2 ½ cups cake flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ½ cups buttermilk
8 tablespoons or 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, whites and yolks separated*See Cook’s Notes
Cook’s Notes
Separating The Egg Whites From The Yolks
Place a slotted spoon or a spoon with holes into a small bowl.
Next, crack the egg on a flat surface.
Over the bowl, open the egg over the slotted spoon.
Slightly rock the spoon to encourage the egg white to fall through the slots and over the sides.
Deposit the yolk in a separate bowl.
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, add the buttermilk, melted butter, and egg yolks and whisk to combine.
Next, add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and gently fold with a rubber spatula until just combined.
Add the egg whites and fold until just combined. Be sure not to overmix. Some lumps are okay.
Let the batter rest for 15-30 minutes at room temperature.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted and is bubbling, reduce the heat to medium-low and add ⅓ cup of batter to the pan.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, until bubbles start to appear on the surface. Flip the pancake over and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Serve the pancakes with butter and the blueberry syrup.
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