Grandma’s Pancake Recipe

You just can’t beat a classic, and pancakes are an old-fashioned staple in plenty of cultures. As with most recipes, some of the best and most effective also happen to have been passed down through several different generations.

This guide to whipping up pancakes is no different, as it also comes from a great-grandmother: I myself have had much success making flapjacks for my family using this simple set of instructions, which requires only seven ingredients to complete.

So, without any annoying backstories about how much I enjoyed eating them as a child, and how it transports me back to the past, let’s get into the recipe itself.

Ingredients

• One egg, medium sized
• One and a half cups of all purpose flour
• One and a quarter cups of milk
• Three tablespoons of melted butter
• One tablespoon of white sugar
• Three and a half teaspoons of baking powder
• One teaspoon of salt
• A splash of oil for the pan

Equipment You Will Need:

• A large mixing bowl
• A sieve
• A wooden spoon
• A frying pan/griddle
• A ladle
• A spatula

Making Grandma’s Pancakes – A Step By Step Guide

1. Sift your flour into a large mixing bowl, ensuring it is free of any lumps, then also add in your sugar, salt, and baking powder, passing everything through the sieve
2. Using your fingers (be sure to wash your hands!) or the end of a spoon, make a little well in the center of your dry ingredients
3. To this well, pour in your milk, then add the melted butter and the egg, also trying to stay as close to the center as possible – this prevents clumping!
4. Stir thoroughly until the mixture is smooth and drips freely from a spoon
5. Add a little oil to your pan or griddle and then warm it up over a medium-high flame
6. Once nice and hot, ladle out around a quarter of a cup into your pan – give it a minute or two, then flip, and it’s ready when both sides are brown. Repeat for however many pancakes you’d like, though the recipe is designed to create eight portions
7. Serve hot, with the toppings of your choice! Need a little inspiration?

Pancake Toppings To Revolutionize Your Flapjacks

Lemon juice and sugar

A classic combination enjoyed around the world, adding a squeeze of citrus and a sprinkling of sugar to pancakes makes for the ideal combination of sweet and sour, without giving you toothache in the process.

Fresh fruit 

For a healthier option that’s just as tasty, get some berries, bananas, peaches… pretty much any fruit you like would go well with a pancake – and taste even better with the addition of yogurt or honey drizzled over the top.

Maple syrup

Need I say any more? Pancakes and syrup is like bacon and eggs: a match made in heaven! Plus, if you want to go the whole hog (pardon the pun) you could throw a little bacon on there too. It really cuts through the sweet syrup.

Nutella or peanut butter

Staple spreads found in the pantries of people all over the world, either option is a solid choice for pairing with pancakes: Nutella suits those with a preference for dessert-style flapjacks, whilst peanut butter is more of a salty, savory combination.

Ice cream

A child’s dreams come true – and every dentist’s nightmare! – the warm, soft pancake is perfectly complemented by a scoop or two of just about any flavor of cold, creamy ice cream – personally, I like chocolate, but whatever your favorite is should work fantastically.

Top Tips For Perfect Pancakes Every Time 

• Use fresh ingredients: yes, that goes for your flour and baking powder too! If either is on the older side, or worse, expired, the result will be a batch of very disappointing pancakes that are flat and sad, more like disappointing crepes really! Be sure to check those use-by dates before you start mixing up a batter.
• Don’t move from the stove: you might be tempted to multitask when preparing pancakes, running around and preparing your toppings as each side browns for instance. Do not do this! You should stay at the stove and give every single pancake the same care and attention, being sure to flip only when bubbles start to form on the surface and the edges have begun to dry up and curl a little. 
• Rest your batter: there may not always be time for this step, but if you have plenty of it to spare, then mixing your batter up and giving it around fifteen minutes to half an hour for resting allows for the flour in the recipe to continue absorbing the wet ingredients, taking care of any smaller, more difficult lumps left behind
• Air the flour: no, don’t throw it into the sky! Simply sift it from above, as the height between the bowl and the flour dropping limits the number of lumps that will end up in your batter at all, never mind remaining after mixing.
• Find the perfect mixing point: this sounds easier than it is! Whilst you definitely want to mix thoroughly, so that you’ve gotten rid of any big, obvious lumps, if you spend too long stirring, you’ll find that things get sticky and a little stiffer, resulting in a rubbery pancake with an unpleasant texture.
• Clean between each pancake: I’m not just talking about the surfaces and your surroundings! By wiping up your pan after each pancake is done, you’ll prevent burning and sticking by removing any leftover bits from previous batches.
  • Just a quick wipe down with a paper towel or a clean cloth is fine, you don’t need to scrub it down or anything.
• Get a bigger pan: if you can get a nice, big space to fry up your pancakes, not only will you be able to cook up several at once, but you’ll also be able to maintain the same level of heat throughout the cooking process, regardless of how temperamental your stovetop happens to be. Griddles are even better!