Greatest Pancakes – A Stunning Mess

If you are looking for the best pancake recipe, this is it! These homemade pancakes are fluffy, sweet, and buttery. And I must give credit where credit is due because this recipe has been perfected by my husband, who is the pancake maker at our house.

While my kids know these as (dad’s) pancakes, I also grew up calling them griddle cakes or flapjacks. Whatever you call them, they are probably one of the easiest and most beloved breakfasts. My husband always makes pancakes on the griddle, while I grew up pan frying them. I’ll show you the (slight) difference but both methods are great.

Related: Next up, learn to make the best French toast, crepes, or whole grain protein pancakes. And if you have a little more time, try my classic cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Brown sugar
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Milk
• Vanilla extract
• Egg
• Unsalted butter

While we usually keep our pancakes simple, you could certainly add some blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips or a little cinnamon to the batter.

How to make Pancakes

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Then stir in the wet ingredients: milk, vanilla extract, large egg and two tablespoons of melted butter. The batter should be cohesive, but it doesn’t have to be 100% lump free.

If you are using an electric, nonstick griddle, heat to around 350°F-375°F. Once heated, pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the hot surface. After 1-2 minutes, you should see bubbles forming in the batter. Use a spatula and flip the pancake over.

Continue to cook on the second side 1-2 minutes, the pancake will be golden brown when done. Remove the cooked pancake to a plate and brush with some of the remaining melted butter.

If you are cooking the pancakes in a pan or nonstick skillet on the stovetop, heat the pan over medium heat. Then melt a little butter and oil in the pan and spoon 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the hot surface. After 1-2 minutes you should see bubbles forming in the batter. Use a spatula and flip the pancake over.

Continue to cook on the other side 1-2 minutes. Remove the cooked pancake to a plate.

Continue to cook until you’ve used all the batter. Serve warm with your favorite accompaniments like maple syrup, peanut butter or Nutella.

Tips & Substitutions

• You can substitute the brown sugar or granulated white sugar if needed, although we like the flavor brown sugar adds to the batter.
• You can substitute the milk or a non-dairy alternative like soy milk or oat milk.
• You can use a non-dairy butter substitute in place of the butter in this recipe, like margarine/vegan butter.
• I will use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to spoon the batter as I cook if I am wanting to make 12 pancakes or keep them the same size. You don’t have to measure though and you can easily make these pancakes a little larger or smaller. If they are quite a bit larger or smaller, you may need to adjust the cooking time.
• When cooking with our toddler, we often let him add some food coloring to the milk as we make the batter. So, pancakes are often blue or green at our house. 🙂

More Breakfast Recipes

Stove Top vs Electric Griddle

Most often we use an electric griddle to cook pancakes. While yes, it’s another kitchen gadget to have in your house, we use ours at least once a week and love the pancakes it makes. Here are the benefits:

• Even cooking surface – This results in uniform, fluffy pancakes every time.
• Nonstick – You don’t have to add extra butter, oil or cooking spray to keep pancakes from sticking to the surface as you work.
• Larger work surface – We can easily make four to six pancakes at a time as opposed to two or three in our largest pan on the stovetop.
• Frees up stove top – We often cook bacon on our stovetop (in a large skillet) at the same time we make pancakes, so having the extra space makes it that much easier.

Stove top works just fine too! I grew up with pancakes made this way, which is more pan fried, so it holds some nostalgia for me. I love the crispy edge it produces from the melted butter and oil in the hot pan. The crispy edge paired alongside the fluffy interior is how I defined pancakes growing up, so this method will always get an A+ from me. 🙂