I Didn't Know (Flap) Jack

As I tried my hand at making some Good Eats pancakes this past weekend, I sure learned a few things. First of all, the order of mixing all the ingredients in the recipe is

[ (butter + egg yolks) + (buttermilk + egg whites) ] + [ all dry ingredients ]

- Make sure the buttermilk/whites mixture isn't too cold when you add the butter/yolk mixture, or the butter will solidify and you'll have to start over. (Uh, hypothetically speaking.)
- On my large burner, around 4.5 is the right temperature (350F) where water dances without bubbling violently.
- Your griddle must be ready before you mix the dry ingredients with the wet, because you want to make the pancakes immediately after mixing.
lumpy batter- When you mix in the dry with the wet, whisk and fold quickly, 10 seconds maximum (or else your pancakes will get tough and chewy instead of light and fluffy).
- Leave the lumps; they'll disappear during cooking!
- I desperately need to buy a set of mixing bowls instead of doing it in eating bowls, ghetto-style. But at least I have a whisk.
- My 4" spatula means I can flip 5" or 6" pancakes nicely, which means a 3oz ladle for batter.
- None of my ladles have labels on them, so I can't tell how much they hold. And I need to buy a bigger spatula to make bigger pancakes.
- Putting a small pat of butter on a paper towel, and using that to wipe up the pan is the perfect amount of butter.
- If you try to pour more batter on one side to make the pancake rounder, the browned side shows obvious signs of how you tried to cheat. Just leave it alone.
- In the beginning, you won't see bubbles. Wait for that 120F point, where they start releasing, and then wait for the bubbles to set.
flipped and nicely browned- You have to flip swiftly and lightly.
- Frozen blueberries have too much liquid in them to make good blueberry pancakes. And there are no fresh blueberries to be found in the summertime.
- I sure make a big mess for just 6 delicious pancakes drizzled with maple syrup. (Product of Maine, USA. I'm saving my Ontario maple syrup for special occasions.)
- I could probably have folded in some finely chopped apples and cinnamon to make a few of those.
- If I ever invite friends over for a pancake breakfast, I'll need two more griddles to get enough "bandwidth".

Now that I have the "instant" pancake mix (those dry ingredients), I can make about 35 more pancakes with ease (just need butter, buttermilk, eggs) within the next 3 months. Sweet. :-) What else can I eat with / in pancakes??

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