Easy Fluffy Pancakes

Make these Easy Fluffy Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup for the perfect brunch or breakfast. These easy pancakes use everyday pantry ingredients and take 10 minutes to prepare! Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Fluffy Pancakes

Although my husband is French and crêpes make a common appearance at both breakfast and dinner (savoury crêpes are among my favourite dishes), these American pancakes are what we like to have for brunch on weekends.

Fluffy Pancake Recipe

The following pancake recipe has been my go-to recipe for as long as I can remember. Well, not entirely true.

My earliest memories of making pancakes involved a pancake mix in one of those plastic containers, and that is probably how I made pancakes until I moved out of home!

Easy Pancake Recipe

But this easy fluffy pancake recipe is almost as easy as a pancake mix, especially since it uses everyday pantry ingredients – flour, sugar, eggs, milk.

No fancy ingredients here; no buttermilk, nor ricotta. Just good, old-fashioned basic ingredients.

How to Make Pancakes

1. Don’t over-work the batter – The trick to making fluffy pancakes like the ones shown in these photos is to not over-work the batter, otherwise you will over-develop the gluten and this will make the pancakes dense and chewy. As soon as you see that all of the ingredients have come together in a smooth batter, immediately stop whisking.
2. Use a small pan – Another tip for making thick fluffy pancakes is to use a small blini pan or small non-stick frying pan. This not only produces a batch of pancakes of the same size, but the sides of the small pan forces the batter to rise up, thus producing higher and thicker pancakes. If you were to use a much larger pan to make several pancakes at once, the batter will spread out more and be thinner in height.
3. Make a thick batter – Speaking of the batter, the consistency is also important, and this is something where practice makes perfect. Generally speaking, a thick batter produces thick pancakes, but it still needs to be thin enough to spread in the pan.

How to Make Pancakes From Scratch

Start by measuring the dry ingredients into a medium-sized mixing bowl. If I want to get a head start on breakfast the night before, I will do at least this step.

I don’t sift the dry ingredients, but I always give them a good whisk which has a similar effect in aerating the flour.

Measure the milk into a large measuring jug, and then whisk in the eggs and the melted butter.

Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, smoothing out any lumps as you do so.

Once you have added all of the wet ingredients, you can give the pancake batter a vigorous whisk to remove any small lumps.

The resulting pancake batter should be smooth and quite thick.

Melt some butter in a non-stick pan, and then wipe off the excess with some kitchen paper so that the pan is only lightly greased with the butter.

I tend to start cooking the pancakes on medium-high heat, and will turn the heat down gradually as the pan warms up.

For perfect fluffy pancakes, I like to use a small non-stick frying pan which is also commonly used to make individual fried eggs. You could also use a blini pan which will have similar dimensions.

Once bubbles start to appear on the surface, it is time to flip the pancake. Cook for a few more minutes on the other side until it has browned nicely.

Repeat with the remaining batter.

What to Serve With Pancakes

I love to eat my pancakes with lots of crispy bacon and warm maple syrup, but pork sausages with a spicy tomato relish also make for a delicious and filling brunch.

The children love their pancakes with just maple syrup, but sometimes I like to make a Blueberry Syrup just for a bit of variety.

This Blueberry Syrup, courtesy of Nigella Lawson, is essentially maple syrup warmed through with lots of blueberries to produce a dark purple sauce. It will stain your pancakes in a dramatic way, but it tastes absolutely delicious.

Anyway, the toppings are endless! What’s more important is that these are the best fluffy pancakes, however you choose to serve them.

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Update

This recipe was first published on 30 March 2018. It has been updated with new photos and more comprehensive recipe notes.