- [Ben] Today, the boys have one hour
in an experimental technique challenge
to create the perfect American pancake.
- [Mike] We've given the guys the same ingredients,
so success in this challenge will depend entirely
on the techniques that they use.
(suspenseful music)
(flames burning)
- [Ben] Your time starts in 3, 2, 1...
(bell rings) Go!
- I'm getting a pan slowly warming up
'cause by the time I want this
wanna be cooking these pancakes,
I want an even temperature throughout the pan.
- You do not start heating your pan
until you've made your batter- - Shut up.
- Yes! This is exactly what I needed.
- [Barry] Rubbish!
- Your batter needs to rest for about 5 to 10 minutes
to let the gluten start to form.
- Rubbish, straight in the pan.
- No, I like Jamie's answer but I would also say
your pan will probably take 5 to 10 minutes
to heat up evenly, so I think it's kind of,
you're both right.
(Barry laughs)
- This is where my experimentation starts.
I'm using plain flour, baking powder,
sugar, whole milk, and I'm separating my eggs
to whip up the white for my raising agent.
I do have some self-raising flour in my back pocket
in case the egg whites don't give me the rise I want.
Just for clarity,
the self-raising flour is not actually in my back pocket.
It was, that was a metaphor.
One of the other tips that I saw
was to make sure that all of your ingredients
are at room temperature,
so I'm just trying to relay this egg.
(mike laugh)
- [Ben] I was gonna say, traditionally
it would be sat on to get the same effect.
- Yes.
- But his back pocket is full of raising agent.
(everyone laughs)
You've gone for technological assistance.
- [Jamie] I have,
but, hand whisk for the batter.
Literally, just want the ingredients
to come together just about,
and then I'll fold in my egg whites
that are all fluffy.
That's now gonna rest for about 5 minutes.
Now is the perfect time to turn on my pan,
and in the mean time,
I'm gonna melt some butter in the microwave.
- No butter in the batter?
No lacing?
- No lacing.
- So I'm starting off with the wet ingredients first.
I've cracked in 200 ml of milk, a whole egg,
I'm not separating my whites, I'm not whisking my whites.
I'm going in with some buttermilk as well.
I've got laced butter throughout it.
Buttermilk, it's slightly acidic,
which therefore reacts well with the bicarb,
and therefore gives you bubbles
as it gives off carbon dioxide.
- So-
- [Barry] But I'm hoping that that gives me my bubbles
rather than the egg whites.
- What's happened?!
- [Ben] So you're using a chemical raising agent,
Jamie is using a physical one.
- [Barry] I don't know if this is gonna work,
(laughing) if I'm honest,
but we'll go for it.
Barely any whisking to bring it together, minimal resting.
- We do pancakes every single year.
This year, pancake day has kinda "crepe'd" up on me.
(ba-dum-tss)
- Oh my god.
- Yes, Ebbers. We've got a full roll reversal.
They're getting scientific,
and Ebbers is bringing the humour.
- Oh no.
- Just don't rise to it.
- The odds are stacked against them.
- They might flip, a couple of (beep).
That was good. Well done, sir.
(both laughing)
- [Barry] Bearing in mind, this is,
this is the first round of pancakes.
We'll just get a feel for it.
If to say, these do burn slightly, don't judge me.
I have more chances to get it right later on.
- We're gonna judge your stack at the end,
but I'm also judging your choice of ingredients,
your choice of method, your process,
your technique, and everything along the way.
This is a technique challenge.
How are you serving yours?
We don't want you to reinvent the wheel here,
but a nice, simple, classic serving would be lovely.
We have given you some citrus, some rhubarb,
but equally if you just wanted butter,
icing sugar, maple or honey, that's fine.
- I think I'm a maple syrup and butter person.
I'm happy the rise of mine, not so happy with the shape.
Nice and fluffy. Super buttery.
So I've got loads of the laced and the buttermilk.
- [Ben] Approaching halfway through,
and Barry has decided to get a second opinion
on his first batch.
(laughing)
- [Mike] Kush doesn't think they're good, Baz.
I think you've got work to do.
- [Ben] I think he's tasting raw flour.
- I've got to change something.
- Yeah.
- You haven't got to if you've absolutely nailed it.
I'm pretty sure you haven't.
- [Mike] Wow!
- [Ben] That's a wonderful rise from Jay's.
It's in a beautiful colour that looks pretty even.
- [Jamie] I've got the fluff that I wanted.
What I need to make sure is that the inside,
the structure is actually what it needs to be.
- [Ben] Is that a happy face?
- [Mike] I can't see it.
- [Jamie] I've got the rise, but inside,
it's a bit too dense, so what I'm thinking
is the pan does need to be slightly lower
so that it cooks all the way through.
- We did say a stack of pancakes,
we didn't specify how many in the stack,
but I think it's got to be at least two or more.
- [Barry] I'd say a stack is three.
Two is a sandwich.
(Mike laughs)
- Three's a club sandwich. (Mike continues laughing)
- [Barry] You doing a second batch, Jay, yeah?
- [Jamie] Yep.
- [Barry] Yeah, same.
- [Mike] Oh, it's all kicking off now!
- [Jamie] Right, for batch two,
I'm keeping most of it the same,
but this time, I've added a bit of salt
to counteract the sweetness and some melted butter
to lace the mixture and keep the pan dry.
(soulful music)
- [Barry] So, I was disappointed by the rise
on my first pancake mixture, so for my second batch,
I'm gonna be adding more bicarb and more sugar,
as I didn't think they were sweet enough.
(soulful music)
Oh, (beep)!
- [Mike] What?
- I didn't put my butter in the wet stuff.
Oh, no!
- And now you're gonna beat again?
- [Barry] Really quickly!
Might be a mistake. Might've screwed that.
- What I would say is it's a lovely, smooth batter
compared to Jamie's more lumpy, but less whisked batter.
- We talked about my irregular shape
and that my pancakes weren't a good shape either, so...
(judges laughing)
I'm going to try a ring cutter.
- So do you just go straight in
or do you need to grease that?
Oh, am I helping?
(Jamie laughs)
- Oh, I hadn't thought about that until right about now.
- How many, how long left?
- 16 minutes,
and none of you have yet done anything to go with it.
We've given you some lovely rhubarb-
- [Jamie] No, rhubarb's not part of a technique.
(cheerful music)
Just had a thought.
What's my technique for flipping?
I think I have to keep the pancake in the ring cutter,
and flip the ring cutter, which will flip the pancake.
Or do I take the ring cutter off, risk it (horn honking).
I don't know what's best.
- How's it going for you, Jay?
- Much like my trousers, the belt is keeping everything-
(judges laughing)
when you take the belt off, it gives the opportunity
for everything in to come out,
so I've reapplied the ring cutter,
the belt in this analogy,
and I'm going to flip everything.
Right, we've had a great result,
but also a terrible result at the same time.
The top, which is now the bottom, is not cooking at all
'cause it's not on the pan.
- [Mike] But I'm so glad that he has used a ring cutter
because this is fantastic.
- [Ben] Well, there's nothing wrong with the ring cutter,
I just don't understand the turning it upside down
so that it's now four inches from the pan.
- [Jamie] No, it's not now.
- [Mike] Are you gonna sear the sides, Jay?
(judges laughing)
How's your confidence, Baz?
- [Barry] Oh, I'm all right. I'm okay.
I'm gonna do a stack of six.
- [Mike] Should we tell him about
the flour on his face? (everyone laughs)
- [Barry] Mine look more like brioches.
- Mine look like crumpets, so I wouldn't worry about it.
- [Mike] I'm loving this.
- [Barry] Of course you are, you're on the side.
- [Ben] 2 and a half minutes!
- [Mike] It's all riding on these, boys!
- What are you doing, Jay?
Are you making a butter and maple syrup mix?
- [Jamie] Yes.
And obviously a shot of whiskey.
- [Barry] I'm serving these how I'd serve them at home,
with a bit of maple syrup on the side.
- Jay, you've got 18 seconds.
Which ones are you going with?
- I don't know!
- Last 5 seconds!
4...
3...
2...
1.
Jay which ones are you submitting?
(plate slides)
Nice.
Risky, but I like it.
- What would you say if we were in a competition
where you and a friend could come down
to our central London studio
and watch us film an episode of Sorted Food live.
Plus, you'll get lunch, cooked by Kush,
and get to eat it with the sorted crew.
Sound good?
All you've got to do is-
- Cook just three meals from our Sidekick app
and send us the photos whilst everyone around you
wonders how you became a chef overnight,
and cook along with us live in our home kitchens every week.
You can ask Ben all your Cheffy questions,
and let's level up our cooking together.
(enticing rock music)
(cheerful rock music)
- I am very excited.
Should we start with Jamie's?
- Yep.
They are thicker than any American pancake I've ever seen.
And you can see, not quite cooked in the middle.
But let's try them, let's taste them.
- Cakey, I would say.
- Cakey. Like a-
- [Mike] More of the cake part of pancake.
You've got an amazing rise on them,
like amazing rise, I think that comes down to
the beating of the egg whites.
- No, see I think the egg whites were over beaten
so they began to lose their structure
and were a bit too stiff
so when you actually fold them through,
you lose the air in the batter.
All that means is they eat quite dry.
When you beat your egg whites,
you over beat them and they began to almost separate,
and you lose that floppy, glossy, airiness,
and then because they're so thick,
you don't get to cook through to the middle
without over cooking the outside and drying that out,
so it's quite a chew and quite an uncomfortable eat.
- But... (Barry and Jamie laugh)
- But hey, they're all very uniform.
- Right, let's move on.
- Sight alone, these look more like American pancakes,
although they've got the mottleness of like, a crepe.
But I quite like the fact that they are
not wholly irregular, but more, I would say, pancakey.
Again, if anyone gave you either stack,
I'm sure with lots of syrup and yoghourt or cream,
you'd love them.
We are picking at the tiny things here.
- You can definitely taste the butter.
- They're buttery, they're much softer,
they're not chewy, they're quite wet.
That's the only thing.
- You got the rise in the pan, didn't you?
- The flavor's great.
Again, they're very even in colour.
I like the mottled effect.
They're less regular than Jamie's,
but I think they're more accustomed to an American pancake.
- Next time, I'm not convinced by the buttermilk.
I'd be tempted to leave it out
and put in- - Normal milk?
- Whipped egg whites instead.
- Oh really? - Yeah.
- I'd say, flavor-wise, they taste great.
They taste like a pancake.
Texture-wise, yeah, they're a bit,
they're not soggy, they just taste a bit greasy.
- Yeah.
- I think, is how I'd describe it.
Do you want to come in and try 'em?
- Yeah.
- Interesting possible pan choice from you,
if you were doing three of them,
you were kind of putting them into the pan
and they were almost moving away because the pan
wasn't flat bottomed, they were easing away from you,
not giving you a huge amount of chance to get even cooking,
where as Jay, you were using a much flatter,
more even surface of a pan which means
you get more consistency.
- It's very cakey, isn't it?
- It's a delicious cake.
Made in a pan. (Jamie laughs)
This is very delicious.
- Butter, maple, whiskey?
- Very, very delicious.
- Very naughty.
- For me, once you understand, really,
what each element in the pancake is doing,
you can then start to play that.
I didn't realise it was the reaction between
the buttermilk and the bicarb that gave me the bubbles,
before doing this, and that's what made me
want to try this one and give it a go.
- So what's the difference between bicarb and baking powder?
And how are they activated?
- [Ben] Bicarbonate of soda is just the base
or the alkalize,
therefore needs liquid to start doing anything,
but it also needs an acid, in this case buttermilk.
It could also happen with lemon juice or the alike.
Baking powder has both acid and alkaline
in dry forms, so all it needs is liquid,
and they already activate themselves.
So if you're using self-raising flour,
that usually has baking powder in it.
- Pancakes are really, really simple to make,
making them perfectly isn't easy.
- [Mike] No.
- And I think to have the opportunity to spend a day going,
"Right, here is my simple pancake recipe.
I'm going to now change this element for this element."
I think is a really fun thing to do,
and you could do that each time you make them,
whether that's once a week, or once a month, or whatever.
But, at the end of the day,
it's really hard to make a bad pancake.
- And once you cover it in delicious maple syrup,
it really doesn't matter, does it?
- Yep.
We've probably all got like, a favourite pancake recipe.
We'll link a few of ours down below, tried and tested.
We'd also love to hear, what is your go to?
What is your trusted recipe?