4 Levels of Pancakes: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi I'm Steven and this is my pancake recipe hi I'm Beth and this is the dimino family pancake recipe hi I'm penny and I've been a professional chef for fifteen years I came up with this because I got tired of the monotony of regular pancakes and I really wanted to shake it up my children loved pancakes when they were growing up we make them all the time this is my pancake recipe that I make on any Sunday morning that my husband is willing to do the dishes we have our pancake mix already prepared in this bowl I start with the flour obviously there's flour here so that's a little bit of whole wheat flour I replace some of the all-purpose flour with and then of course there's a little bit of sugar because you got to have sugar sugar two whole brown eggs there's a lot of shells in there and then we have our chemical leaveners we have baking powder and baking soda to help them rise cut about half of the cheesecake this is breaking up the monotony there you go and then you just want to kind of break it up oh jeez this is more of an arm workout then I would like I always start with a cup of milk and then we'll follow up with our butter milk this is some graham cracker sprinkles it added a little genesee quoi don't know what that means though this is the important part don't over mix it I don't want to over mix this and you want to make sure that you mix it thoroughly that's it that's the batter now we're gonna cook the pancakes all right so now on to the fun bacon part this is where the magic is really happening in this recipe I'm gonna take the bacon and we're gonna chop it into small pieces then just one down through the center for good measure and what I like to do to grease the pan is to use some vegetable oil on a piece of paper towel or a kitchen towel I like the way the oil works better with the pancakes than the butter take a good chunk of button so I don't really need to over grease this but I'm gonna make sure that the pancake doesn't stick before I make the pancakes I always like to do a test of pancake to make sure that the pan is hot and the consistency of the batter is exactly where I want it my skillets nice and hot its preheated to a good medium medium-high temperature pour my batter into the center so this is the first pancake the first pancake is not usually your best pancake most often it ends up actually in the garbage some say the first pancake never comes out perfect I go against some and now we wait waiting for pancakes is one of the hottest things you can do in the world that's a nice color on both sides so a rule of thumb we always try to throw away the first pancake it's burnt if we're gonna be honest this is burn all right ah mess so the first one now that our testing pancake came out great let's make four more now we're gonna go in for round two put some blueberries on candied bacon I like a piece of bacon in every fork full of pancake I think I'm romanticizing now we wait for the bubbles but it's don't already mother's intuition you know when to flip the pancakes when you see lots of bubbles on top and the bubbles start to pop bubbles are already starting to release I'm supposed to flip it four times about twice on each side I only like to turn my pancakes once and do what it does there we have a beautiful blueberry pancake nice lift when I turned it Thank You baking powder so you have the bubbles on the first side they'll tell you when to flip but you don't have that kind of benefit on the second side so anyplace that little bit of batter escapes when I flipped it that's kind of my guide once I see that look more dry then I know maybe I'm okay now we're gonna make our toppings always stop is some nice butter that will melt on our warm pancakes so the brown butter that was in the pancake recipe we only use three tablespoons of that but I went ahead and made the entire pound of butter brown butter because why not we're gonna chop the strawberries pour this strawberry syrup on top of the strawberries first we'll put the maple syrup so that the blueberries will stick to the syrup nobody likes to make Bowl syrup we're gonna start with a bourbon maple syrup we're gonna take a vanilla bean split that down the center and scrape down the pod with the back of a paring knife let's scrape that into there and add the bean as well pinch of salt bourbon lots of it and we're gonna bring this up to a simmer the easiest way to get it to a consistent simmer is to first bring it up to a boil and then as soon as it hits a boil turn it down and we're gonna let that hang out for about ten to fifteen minutes so that all the flavors blend together of blueberries and a final flourish of a little lemon zest then you take the syrup and lather it on you can even pour it and I'm gonna drizzle it over the top of my pancakes and no joke I'm also gonna put it in a small picture and serve it alongside because you might up stare up on the top is never lost so I really like a little bit of a fruity element with my pancakes and so I made an apple butter apple butter is like applesauce but it's cooked way longer and very rich and a lot of them what moisture has been cooked out so I like to just serve this alongside my pancakes and dip in as I go let's dig in my husband's gonna be so jealous these are my pancakes I'll see where I messed up but it's really good they're so good the dry ingredients in pancake mix are flour salt sugar and leaveners Steven bought that mix this is in fact a store-bought pancake mix and Beth made that mix they're essentially the same thing it's a lot less expensive quick breads like pancakes are leavened with chemical leaveners either baking powder or baking soda Steven and Beth both used baking powder in their pancake batter mother's intuition baking powder is a mixture of sodium bicarbonate which is basic or alkaline in a mixture of acids the mixture of an acidic compound in a basic compound will come together and produce carbon dioxide gas in our batter and make it rise or lift when it's baking thank you baking powder pennies pancake batter has baking soda and baking powder baking soda when combined with an acidic component like the buttermilk in her batter will help to produce more carbon dioxide bubbles than our level one in level two chefs creating product that will rise even more those are cooler facts this is also gonna produce an even round our final product colors good it's nice and ground a little bit caramelized on the top because the mired reaction or the combination of reducing sugar and the amino acids found in the batter are favorable in a basic environment so that's that each of our chefs use a different kind of dairy product in their pancake Beth used whole milk I always start with a cup of milk I'm penny used buttermilk buttermilk round butter two of the secrets and the liquid ingredients buttermilk is more acidic than whole milk and will provide a deeper flavor than the whole milk anywhere that I can add things to make it more interesting I like to try to do that Stephen Hughes cheesecake in his batter which will make it resemble more of a cake than a pancake it will be less fluffy and have a tighter crumb it doesn't look good Penny's dry mix look similar to Stephens and Beth's mix but she added whole wheat flour to create a complex flavor in her final pancake I'm not trying to be healthy no joke Stephen vigorously stirred his pancake batter more of an arm workout than I would like Beth and Penny both stirred their pancake powder just until the dry ingredients were wet and dampened but if it's smooth and not lumpy it won't be right it's just wolf over stirring produces gluten strands that tunnel through the pancake batter this will produce a chewy inelastic product as opposed to a fluffy pancake cooking a pancake over a moderate or medium heat will ensure that the browning happens on the outside of the pancake at the same rate that the inside cooks I don't really like it was she in the middle as soon as bubbles start to form on the top of the pancake it's ready to flip bubble action this shows that the carbon dioxide is giving leavening or rise to the pancake and it's ready to turn over to the other side Stephen flipped his pancake before we saw the carbon dioxide bubbles break the surface of this pancake this is because he stirred the mixture vigorously and removed a lot of that leavening power from the baking powder and he used heavy and dense ingredients like cheesecake but it's gonna weigh down his product I thought I was ready for level two but I think I'm right where it belongs people often use the first pancake as a test to see if the heat is up the right temperature in their pan a good example of this is Stevens first pancake the bottom got a little bit too brown before the middle could cook it's burnt we're gonna be honest he then adjusted his heat to make sure that the next pancakes were cooked evenly after being flipped once the pancakes will start to rise again if you continue to flip the pancakes back and forth you're gonna push out all of the carbon dioxide built up in the pancake and it won't be as fluffy you don't make these pancakes like I do I'm just a scientist one flip is ideal for making pancakes multiple flips will create a flatter pancake by taking out some of the carbon dioxide in the batter Stephen didn't mix anything into his pancakes Beth used blueberries in her mix and penny used candied bacon when adding something into the pancake mix the lower the sugar content the less likely it's going to burn blueberries are a good option in pancake mix because when exposed to direct heat they won't burn as quickly as a higher sugar product you can't have too many blueberries on blueberry pancakes hi sugar mix ins like Penny's candied bacon can burn at a faster rate than the pancakes cook sprinkle the remaining candied bacon over the top of this baby it is advisable to have a high level of expertise when adding high sugar products into your pancake mix this will help to avoid burning each chef chose a thoughtful array of toppings to pair with their pancakes Stephen paired his pancakes with fresh-cut strawberries and strawberry syrup oh that was good Beth paired her pancakes with maple syrup blueberries and butter with a little bit of lemon zest to help brighten overall flavor that's wonderful penny added apple butter bourbon maple syrup spiced brown butter and candied bacon to her pancakes everybody has their own individual way of topping a pancake you can layer on similar flavors or combine different tastes flavors and textures to create an overall more unique sensory profile the next time you're flipping out on Sunday morning take some of the tips from this video to make your next pancakes

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 3,499,584

Rating: 4.8765249 out of 5

Keywords: pancake, pancakes, 4 levels, 4 levels of, 4 levels of pancake, amateur chef, food scientist, pancake 4 levels, 4 levels epicurious, professional chef, homemade pancake, pancake epicurious, how to make pancake, make pancake, making pancakes, make pancakes, making pancake, amateur pancakes, homemade pancakes, pro pancakes, professional pancakes, 4 levels pancakes, 4 level pancake, how to pancakes, how to pancake, pancakes epicurious, epicurious

Id: agZhQYCBaTE

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/BackdoorDan]

Wow, they really made that first guy look like an asshole

[u/azorin]

I really enjoyed the science aspect, anyone know where to find more of the science behind cooking?

[u/warfarinb]

Wish they would of done a tasting and scored them.