A few weeks ago I was researching the KitchenAid stand mixer and I came across a blog post by someone that I thought was not the best advice. The post was all about making pancakes with your mixer (or any stand mixer really). Now the recipe was probably pretty good but the process is what was flawed in my opinion. If you like to have gummy or chewy pancakes, then by all means, go ahead and use an electric mixer. But I really like to have soft and fluffy pancakes that really soak up the syrup. So, for me having dense lifeless pancakes is not the way to start my morning. You should always treat pancake batter delicately because of a special protein called gluten. This 2 part protein, made up of glutenin and gliadin, is created when you mix up flour and any liquid. This is perfectly ok when you are making bread because gluten adds body and density to your dough. But if you over mix your pancake batter, instead of light fluffy wonders you get tough and chewy results. So if you want your breakfast pancakes to be light and airy consider unplugging that mixer and instead follow this 'manual' process. Now any basic recipe that you like for making pancakes will do. But you need to take extra care when you start mixing the dry and wet ingredients together. You should first start by mixing the wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Like all good recipes, preparation helps the recipe turn out better. For pancakes, make sure you have a hot pan or electric griddle ready for cooking before you mix the wet and dry together. I use a pan on the stove and if I had one I would use an electric griddle. They control the heat better and you can cook a lot more pancakes at one time. You can also wrap your cooked pancakes in a towl and place them in a 200 degree oven while you cook the rest and serve them. With your cooking device preheated you can now mix the batter. It needs to be done as quickly and effectively as possible to avoid a lot of gluten forming. The easiest way to accomplish this is with the dump and fold method. Literally dump the wet ingredients on top of the dry and fold with a large spatula for up to 15 seconds. Then stop. You may have some lumps but don't worry about them as they will normally disappear during the cooking process. You are now in a position to cook the pancakes. With your pan preheated place a large dollop of batter on it and wait for the bubbles to form around the edge. This normally takes about 2 minutes. The bubbles tells you that you can safely flip the pancake. It should be brown on the bottom and not pale. If it is not dark enough it usually means your heat is too low. Next carefully flip your pancake and cook the second side until it too is browned nicely. Now please promise me you will use real maple syrup on your pancakes. The taste is 100 times better than the corn syrup gunk you find on your store shelves. The cost is a bit more but a large bottle will last a long time (unless you eat pancakes every weekend). You just made some great pancakes so you really should treat them to the best topping too. There you have it. Next time you get a craving for some flapjacks, keep the KitchenAid mixer covered and instead use the dump and fold method for the lightest and fluffiest pancakes you can make at home.
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