14 mistakes everyone makes when cooking pancakes

1-Using old baking soda, bleached flour, or cheap butter
2-Overmixing the batter

3-Using the wrong whisk to mix the batter

4-Preparing the batter ahead of time

5-Using a small frying pan

6-Cooking with butter

7-Flipping too soon or too often

8-Cooking pancakes at the wrong temp

9-Not testing the first pancake

10-Not letting the batter rest

11-Using processed pancake syrups

12-Adding too many fillings

13-Pouring the batter directly from the bowl to the pan

14-Not measuring everything

1-

For any food requiring few ingredients, you should assume that using high-quality ones will yield better results. This certainly holds true when you want to produce the pancakes you've been dreaming about all week. Since baking soda helps pancakes achieve their full fluffy potential when they are heated, it's crucial to use a leavener that's no more than six months old. Doing so helps you avoid cooking up flat ones that are no fun to look at or eat. Bleached flour sounds just as unsavory as you'd imagine. This type has been chemically whitened. Opt for the unbleached kind, which has retained most of its nutrients and vitamins. And what distinguishes high-quality butter from lesser varieties? In short, the taste. Butter is graded from AA to B, with AA being the best for a pleasing taste, creamy texture, and light flavor. You can't go wrong with Grade AA unsalted butter for all your cake and pastry needs.

2-

It's easy to overmix the pancake batter in an effort to smooth out all the lumps, but don't do this! The more you stir, the more you work the gluten in the flour, resulting in tough and chewy pancakes instead of light and tender ones. Simply mix your ingredients together until everything is just incorporated and no streaks of flour are visible, leaving any remaining lumps. Don't fret about weird lumpy pancakes since they magically disappear during cooking.

3-

While whisking the batter sets you off on the path to righteous pancakes, you also need to choose the right whisk for the job. I know. So much to think about, right? While narrower, more conventional French whisks are perfect for hard, vigorous stir jobs, you want to opt for the more bulbous, rounder balloon whisk for preparing your pancake batter. The latter has wires that are farther apart and create a rounder shape, hence the name. This type of whisk is best for this particular task because the ample space between the wires creates air during whisking, keeping your batter light and fluffy.

4-

Leaveners like baking soda or powder are activated as soon as they come into contact with wet ingredients. As such, you don't want to make the batter too early. The leavener you're using will not work as well if the batter's been sitting around for a day or even an hour. Pancake batter takes about five minutes to make, so try to start prepping only when you're ready to cook and eat.

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