Rest the batter for ten minutes. That is the entire secret — the flour hydrates, the bubbles settle, and the pancakes rise tall on the griddle.
Prep time
10 min
Cook time
15 min
Serves
12 pancakes
Follow along photo by photo — every stage below shows exactly what to look for before you move on.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a wide bowl for a good twenty seconds. This is effectively sifting: it breaks up any clumps of raising agent so you never get a bitter, soapy pocket in a finished pancake.
Make a shallow well in the centre. It gives the wet mixture somewhere to sit so you can fold from the outside in, which takes far fewer strokes than chasing batter around a flat surface.
Beat the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter together until uniform, then pour into the well and fold with a spatula just until no dry flour remains. Ten or twelve strokes is usually enough.
The batter should look lumpy and slightly shaggy — that is exactly right. Every extra stir develops gluten, and gluten is what turns a tender pancake into a rubbery one. Resist the urge to smooth it out.
Tip · No buttermilk? Stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into 400ml of milk and leave it for ten minutes.
Leave the batter alone for ten minutes. The flour hydrates fully, the lumps dissolve on their own, and the raising agents begin producing the bubbles that give you height on the griddle.
Meanwhile, set your pan over medium-low heat — lower than instinct suggests. A flick of water should skitter and evaporate within a couple of seconds; if it vanishes instantly the pan is too hot and the outsides will scorch before the centres set.
Brush the pan with butter and drop in quarter-cup scoops, leaving space between them. Wait until bubbles rise, break, and stay open at the edges — a hole that closes back over means the batter underneath is still wet.
Flip once, confidently, and cook for barely a minute more. Every additional flip presses out the air you worked to build, so one turn per pancake is the rule.
Tip · Wipe the pan with kitchen paper between batches; browned butter solids will speckle the next round.
Stack as you go, sliding a knob of butter between every other layer so it melts down through the pile rather than sitting on top.
Pour the syrup at the table while everything is still steaming. If you are cooking for a crowd, hold the finished pancakes in a single layer on a rack in a 90°C oven — stacking them on a plate traps steam and softens the edges.