Make Pancakes for One
What's better in the morning than a few sweet, delightfully fluffy pancakes? While this breakfast classic is always a favorite, whipping up an entire batch can be wasteful if you don't have guests over. Luckily, this doesn't have to be an issue! Use this "for one" recipe and you'll have just enough pancakes to start your day right.
Contents
Ingredients
Basic Pancakes
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted (plus extra for griddle)
- 1 egg
- Pinch of salt
- Toppings of choice
For Optional Variations
- 1/2 cup berries
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- Zest of two lemons
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons' worth)
- 1/3 cup poppy seeds
- 1/4 cup onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots, shredded
- 1/2 cup long beans, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 1/4 cup gluten-free flour (e.g. buckwheat, etc.)
Steps
Basic Pancakes
- Measure out the ingredients. You can also measure out each ingredient as you go if you wish. We recommend the first choice — it makes cleanup easier when you're cooking for one since you can just dump the dirty measuring dishes in the sink as you use them.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Add the flour, sugar, and baking powder to a mixing bowl along with a pinch of salt. Stir until uniform.
- Add the wet ingredients. Add milk, egg, and melted butter to the bowl. Stir until well-combined. The egg may take some light beating to get yellow streaks of yolk to disappear.
- Melt butter in a hot pan. Set a pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add a generous knob of butter (about one to two tablespoons). Use a spatula to move the butter around and coat the bottom of the pan. Let it melt completely and heat until frothing.
- Pour on one third of the mixture at a time. You should have about enough batter for three medium-sized pancakes. If your pan is big enough, you can cook multiple pancakes in different parts of the pan at once. For smaller pans, try cooking a single pancake at once.
- Flip after several minutes. After about three minutes, use a spatula to lift up the edges of the pancake. If they come away from the pan easily and have a satisfying golden-brown color, you are ready to flip. If they seem mushy and have a pale yellow color, let them cook a little longer.
- To flip a pancake, slide a spatula all the way under and lift it away from the hot pan. With a single turning motion of the wrist, flip the pancake over and let the uncooked side hit the hot pan.
- Add a little extra butter to the pan as needed to prevent the pancakes from sticking.
- Serve with your favorite topping. When the second side of each pancake is finished, transfer it out of the pan and onto a clean plate. You should soon have a stack of roughly three fluffy pancakes. You are ready to flavor your pancakes and enjoy. A few recommended toppings are listed below:
- Syrup (plain or maple)
- Whipped cream
- Chopped fruit
- Chocolate sauce
- Butter
- Honey
- Peanut butter
- Ice cream
- Pinch of cinnamon
Recipe Variations
- Try making berry pancakes. A handful of fresh berries in your batter will give your pancakes a delicious fruitiness. Virtually any berry will work well here: blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and other berries all make good choices. You can also get away with adding berries that are slightly over-ripe — once the pancakes are cooked, they'll be unrecognizable.
- In a pinch, you can use frozen berries in most pancake recipes. As long as your pancakes are fairly thin, they'll thaw completely.
- Try making chocolate chip pancakes. Adding chocolate chips to your batter will give you a rich, cookie-like treat. Choose whichever type of chips you like: milk chocolate will give you the sweetest taste, while semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips will give a flavor that's a little more complex.
- These pancakes go well with ice cream or whipped cream as a dessert dish.
- Try lemon poppy seed pancakes. If you're a fan of breakfast muffins, try these deliciously unique pancakes. Add lemon zest and juice to the batter along with a handful of poppy seeds for texture. You may need to compensate for the extra liquid by adding a small amount of extra flour. Try adding it 1/8 of a cup at a time until you achieve a good consistency.
- To zest a lemon, use a fine grater or microplane to grate the outer layer of the peel into your mixing bowl. You won't need much — if the peel gets white, you're going too far.
- Simple syrup with lemon juice makes a great syrupy condiment for this dish.
- Try savory vegetable pancakes. If you're trying to get another serving of vegetables into your daily diet, try these treats by adding shredded carrots, onions, long beans, and garlic to your batter. These pancakes aren't sweet, but they taste great with a little butter or olive oil. Salty fish (like whitebait) also make great companions.
- If you like spice, try adding a little red pepper to the batter with the vegetables. Plain greek yogurt is a great side in this case — its rich smoothness counteracts the spice.
- Try gluten-free pancakes. If you suffer from Celiac disease, never fear — you can still enjoy your favorite pancake recipe. Just substitute gluten-free flour for all-purpose flour in the "Basic Pancakes" recipe above. The taste and texture may be very slightly different, but you may even prefer these differences.
- There are many kinds of gluten-free flour available. Examples include buckwheat and almond flour. Try checking your local health food store or specialty grocer if you're not sure where to buy gluten-free flour.
Tips
- Minor differences in ingredients can affect the consistency of your batter. If your batter comes out too thick, add a little extra milk and stir. If it's too thin, add a little extra flour.
- Pancake batter generally keeps for up to two days in the fridge if you remove most of the air from its container. In the freezer, it can last up to several months.
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