I grew up thinking that baking was this great mystery. I would go to the store and buy a box with the picture of the cake or pancake that I wanted, go home and then add water and BOOM magic happened and by some crazy miracle a cake or pancake was created. Yet somehow I still managed to burn my cakes to unrecognizable shapes OR caught my pancakes on fire. Also, sometimes my cakes would never set and just always looks like jello from those commercials in the 90’s “it’s AAALLLIIIVVEE” (imagine that in a sing song voice). Then that’s how they turned to burnt crisps. ANYWAY, my point is I just always thought it was this huge secret only a few people had access to and the rest of us were stuck with the box.

Having kids is a funny thing because you can go your whole life not stressing about something or worrying about it, and then all of the sudden you have this tiny life in your arms and all of the sudden you think “wait, didn’t I read somewhere that oxygen is actually poison to our bodies and that’s why our bodies deteriorate??” And then you do all you can to not call up your pediatrician and ask them if breathing oxygen is bad for your baby. So somewhere in my life’s timeline after having my first kid I started to read the ingredients of these magic boxes that cakes and pancakes came from and I looked up some of those ingredients…don’t do that unless you’re prepared to never use one again. So I began my journey to figure out the magic behind making pancakes and cakes from scratch.

It turns out, this mysterious magic is super simple and not so mysterious at all, but still definitely magical. Over the years I tried many different renditions of the “pancake recipe” and finally I am excited to present my version “The Simply Perfect Pancake”.

Alicyn

Before we get to the recipe itself, here are some pictures to use as a guide

This is how my bowl looks when I add all the dry ingredients.

This is how it looks when I add the wet ingredients and mix it.

This is how my batter looks once all mixed.

This is what my pancakes look like when I talk about the bubbles “popping”.

And finally, cooling.

The Simply Perfect Pancake

Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour

• 2 tablespoons of sugar

• 3 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 2 1/2 cups of milk

• 2 eggs

Directions

1. Set out all of the ingredients and measure them out.

2. Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Go from big to small, so that would be flour, sugar, baking powder and then salt. Then, use a fork to mix. I know that this isn’t the most “professional” way of doing this but it’s simple. I am a huge believer of 90% of the way is better than 0%. With 90% you have yummy pancakes, maybe not the most “refined” pancakes but definitely amazing and simple. Then, to keep my space clean, I put all the ingredients away that I have already measured and put in the bowl.

3. Make a “pit” in the mix of dry ingredients and then add the “wet” ingredients. Again, add starting from the biggest ingredient, so first the milk and then the eggs. Technically you should mix the “wet” ingredients separately first, but as I said, I like to keep things simple and I have kids SO mixing it all in the same bowl is one less thing I have to wash and I really don’t see a difference (please don’t cringe too hard if you are a professional baker). So mix it all together with a fork!

4. Let the batter sit and rest while you heat up a non-stick skillet at medium to medium-low heat. That translates to a 4 or 3 1/2 on my gas range stove of up to 6. If you don’t have a non-stick skillet, then the answer is yes you can use one that isn’t but know that you are gonna want to put your spatula in timeout after it scrunches up your pancakes and flips them in half on you. And use butter, that will help. I’ll have a link to a non-stick on at the bottom of the post if you want one. I refused to buy one for the longest time, I finally got over myself and saved my spatula’s life and bought a cheap one, best thing I’ve ever done. ANYWAY, back to the recipe, sorry.

5. Use a 1/4 cup to scoop and pour three pancakes onto your pan.

6. This is the tricky part, knowing when to flip. A good general guide is flip after 1 1/2 minutes; however, sometimes this fails me and I end up with black coal, sometimes it works great, it’s 50/50. So I would start there with the 1 1/2 minutes, then I would also look at the pancake itself. As it cooks you’ll start to notice bubbles and then those bubbles “popping” – that means it’s cooking and good to flip. Another good indicator is your sense of smell…you’ll smell them if it’s been too long trust me. I always use my first three as a gauge for the rest. Don’t feel bad if you have to throw those first three…or six out. Also note that the longer you are cooking them the hotter your pan will get, so I usually turn my heat down a little each time I add a new batch.

7. Once the other side has cooked, remove your batch of pancakes and place them on a cooling rack or plate or anything you want. I use parchment paper under them on the cooling rack so I don’t have to wash it.

8. Repeat this process until all your batter is gone, or until you are tired of making pancakes at which point you can just make a giant one and then call it good.

For those wanting a non-stick skillet, the link here will take you to Walmart where you can look at a pan and see if you like it!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Fal-Comfort-Nonstick-Fry-Pan-12-inch-Black-C5650764/482704183