Hey,
I'm Ben chef at sortedfood and today I'm going to show you how to make pancakes.
Two different ways at home, full of tips and tricks and hacks,
which means it's completely idiot proof. This is the way I do it.
This is the way absolutely you can do it and to stop me getting too cheffy and
carried away, Mike, you're going to be behind the camera to keep me in check.
Got to represent us normals. Fair. First up.
This is how to make the perfect fluffy pancakes.
The point of today is two pancake recipes. But when I say recipes,
you will never need a recipe ever again. It's just a ratio. One,
one, one. One part eggs, one part milk, one part flour.
For every portion you want to make, you need one egg. So... Two portions today,
Mike and I, two eggs.
But weigh them into a bowl because that's the start of your ratio. One part egg.
For us, two eggs. That's 108 grams. Remember it.
This means this ratio will work wherever you are in the world.
No matter how big or small your eggs are. Scoop the yolks into jug.
So if you're making like Meringues,
you shouldn't really put your fingers into the egg whites,
because the natural oils on your fingers might get involved.
We don't want super stiff egg whites. So this is just easy as. You remember,
your 108, you're now going to add exactly the same into your egg yolks.
One part egg, one part milk.
If you want to sub out your milk for buttermilk, you can. So,
if you've heard of buttermilk pancakes... Same, same!
It's almost a bit like the sourness you get in sourdough bread,
but it's also slightly thicker generally.
So it might give you a slightly thicker batter. Season at this stage,
pinch of salt. Pepper if you're doing savoury ones, same again of flour.
So 108 grams. Again, the ratio is one, one, one. One part egg, one part milk,
one part flour. You're trying so hard to get it exact. I'm a gram over,
you allowing me a 1% tolerance? Right! So to get fluffy pancakes,
two methods, one... A pinch of baking powder.
So that is a chemical raising agent. When it gets wet,
it's going to react and give you the fluff.
The second way to make these super fluffy is whisk up egg whites.
And that's why we separate them out. Chemical in the form of baking powder,
mechanical in the form of that. Don't snigger.
So you're just looking for nice and soft kind of fluffy peaks.
It's just going to hold. As with all batters... Wet into dry.
So now, egg yolks and milk whisk up,
add to your flour and baking powder.
Stir in as you go.
And then fold in all of your egg whites and all of that air.
And when I say fold, I mean swap for a spoon rather than a whisk,
and you're just kind of folding it over, cutting through the middle,
fold it over.
You've now got wet in there so it's activated the baking powder and you end up
with gorgeous fluffy pancakes. Ladles I think add mess,
so just add it back into your jug.
You've already used the jug so it's already dirty. Look how fluffy that is.
This I would say is the most important thing.
The pan should be preheated and at an even temperature.
So not just searingly hot,
but you've kind of had it on the heat for a few minutes to level out to the
temperature at which you're going to cook.
And either butter the pan or butter the batter. I'm going to butter the pan.
The reason with fluffy ones,
I like to prefer to butter the the pan is you get that slight browned butter
nuttiness going on as well.
So this butter pour it into the pan and kind of let it find its own level.
It should end up roughly circular. You can always press out a little bit.
If you want it slighty thinner.
Watching it slowly, you can see it all kind of dries and sets up.
And that's when you know it's cooked,
when basically you can touch it and you don't end up with batter on your finger.
Get underneath it and flip it.
Again about another minute on the other side,
then repeat the whole process until your batter is used up.
Simple ratio, a few tips and hacks.
What you end up with a stack of fluffy pancakes. Butter, maple syrup,
streaky bacon... Brunch, breakfast done.
But what I like to do midweek is do an all-day breakfast. One,
two, three, pancakes, garlic and thyme mushrooms, poached egg,
crispy bacon.
Now there are absolutely more complex pancake recipes out there,
but this is the foundation. This is an absolute perfect starting point.
Shall we move on. Next up, the thinner, more classic crepe recipe.
And I make this to use up pretty much whatever's leftover in the fridge. Again,
a simple ratio. One, one and a half. That's one part egg,
one part milk and a half part flour. Again,
just going to crack in as many eggs as you are cooking for people.
Take the measurement... 114 grams,
tare it and add the same of milk. 114 grams.
At this point, season it. Pinch of salt, some black pepper.
That's your wet stuff.
Pretty much the third and final ingredient is flour.
We're going to use plain flour and you don't necessarily need these to rise.
These are flat crepes and you don't want strong flour because it can be a little
bit tough with gluten. So plain flour, all purpose flour, or cake flour.
And you're going to add half. Remember the ratio one part egg, one part milk,
half flour. So what's half of 114? It's a good question.
57!
So 57 grams of flour and it sounds precise,
but generally round it up.
Always add wet into dry.
And then it will be pretty much lump free and just slowly but surely combine it.
That is crepe batter. Now, two trains of thought here,
you can either add a little bit of melted butter into your batter to lace the
whole batter. That will save you having to butter the pan each time,
or you can butter the pan. It's entirely up to you. Any preference? Lace it!
Let's lacy it. Let's get Lacy. It's sounds cheffy.
Just about tablespoon of butter. You seasoned it right at the start.
That's literally good to go. Couple of schools of thought on batter...
Leave it to rest if you've just been whisking it up it's better if it relaxes a
little bit. And in the meantime, you can heat up a pan.
This happens to be a crepe pan and flat,
but you can basically do it in any frying pan.
Now you've got it in your jug it's easy.
You're just going to pour it into your preheated pan.
Going to put in enough to be able to swell it right round into a thin layer.
And the first one, you just judge that and work it out.
It's actually quite comforting that you don't get it right the first time. Yeah,
I think you need to get your eye in. You forget how big the pan is.
You forget how kind of thin it is, how hot it is.
So if the pan is nice and preheated and ready for even cooking and you've got it
nice and thin when it comes away from the edges, it's probably a minute,
90 seconds? And then you can just get underneath it.
You can always check and peel back and have a look,
but then you just want to flip it. And you wanna be confident with that.
Just go for it. Oh, you didn't even go for the pancake flip.
Well I wanted to show that you can keep control. Yeah, you can flip it,
but even a small thing like this, you can just get underneath it.
And in one smooth motion. Again, about another minute on the other side.
And then you can just slide it onto a plate lined with baking paper.
Now this means that you can basically stack them up and keep them all warm until
you serve it,
if you're cooking for more people because you don't have to only cook one
pancake at a time. But the next one, ready to go into the pan. You
can see the lovely, golden, mottled, laced effect.
You'll get that on the first side of the pancake you cook.
The second side tends to not look as laced, but that's not a problem,
because as long as you fold it and fill it the way that it looks good,
it's fine. Lacy pancake,
you wouldn't wear your lacy underwear inside out would you?. Oh!
I didn't see that coming.
I'm not letting you get away without tossing that this time.
Did you see the sheer panic? In between
cooking them and bear in mind they take a couple of minutes each,
you can create a filling. Now without the black pepper in the batter,
it could just literally be a squeeze of lemon, drizzle of honey.
You could put some fresh berries in there, some sliced up banana,
make it your own. But if we're talking savoury and using up leftovers,
I'm chopping up some fresh oregano because it's what we've got. But use basil,
thyme. You go, you. And then mix it into some roasted veg. Again,
whatever was left in the fridge. Peppers, courgette, onion, garlic. You can see,
I cut it up pretty small and the oven was pretty hot and it literally took 10
minutes. The same time it takes to cook three or four pancakes.
Crepe origami is important. Generous on filling. Fill half of it,
fold it over, fill a quarter of it, fold it over.
Then repeat. Finish fresh oregano flowers.
How fancy is that mike?
Two options for you. You've got the crepes, which couldn't be an easier method.
One, one, half as a ratio.
We've stuffed ours with roasted veg and goat's cheese. Over here,
one extra tiny step in the method, but even easier ratio. One, one,
one all day breakfast on a stack of fluffy pancakes. And here's the thing.
If you want a gluten free version of this, just sub out the plain flour,
for gram flour. That's chickpea flour, otherwise follow exactly the same method.
And if you want a dairy free version of these pancakes,
just swap out the milk for soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk. Otherwise,
same ratio. We'd love to hear what you do with your pancakes. Your tips,
your tricks, your flavours you like to put in it and on it.
Comment down below and join the conversation over on Twitter.
But if you want to see us chefs show you a bit more of what we cook at home then
give the video a like. Can we eat them now? Yeah.
Goat's cheese is a bit of a Luxury.
I don't always have goat's cheese kicking around,
but I always have an end of Parmesan or Cheddar.
I'm going to try some of these crepes. That's great!