Let’s first put the church back in the middle of the village: having a few lumps in your pancake batter is not a big deal. If these small clumps of flour are not present in too many numbers, they will not interfere with the tasting, particularly if we generously garnish our pancakes with spread. To the wise.
Why are there lumps in pancake batter?
Now that the importance or rather non-importance of lumps has been discussed, let’s look at why. What are lumps? Just little clumps of flour that stick together and don’t fully dissolve into the liquid mass. Is that bad ? We repeat: no! The problem with lumps is often their number and not necessarily their size.
But then where do the lumps come from? Lumps are often the result of some haste. Quite simply. In cooking, you have to take your time and not rush certain actions. This is the case for pancake batter when integrating milk (liquid mass) into the flour + eggs mixture (solid mass). If you add the milk all at once, there will inevitably be lumps. But if we proceed gradually, taking the time to vigorously mix the solid mass while gradually integrating the liquid mass, the dough will always be smooth.
Tips to avoid lumps
If despite all your good will and the care taken with your pancake batter, there are still lumps, no problem, solutions exist.
First solution (in anticipation): sift the flour
Passing your flour through a sieve allows you to obtain a finer result.
Second solution (in anticipation): lukewarm milk
By adding lukewarm milk, rather than cold, to the flour-egg mixture, the lumps should soon be nothing more than a bad memory.
Third solution (a posteriori): filter
Depending on the size of the lumps, you can filter your paste through a sieve or strainer.
Fourth solution (as a last resort): mix
Ultimate solution: the blender or hand blender. With these tools, no worries, the lumps will disappear.
Even if these solutions will catch up with the story without any problem, remember this expression “You have to know how to take your time, if you don’t want to waste it starting over. » Implied: it is better to spend a little more time incorporating the milk into your pancake batter than to waste time getting out a colander, food processor and other utensils.
And otherwise, ter repeated : it’s not a few lumps in your pancakes that will make them less tasty or spoil Candlemas, far from it. If there is love in your pancakes, there may well be a few lumps, your guests will still be satisfied.
