Making pancakes is not difficult. You need flour, milk, eggs, a spoonful of oil and a pinch of salt. Ingredients that everyone has at home. It is also not necessary to have a pastry skills to be successful, however, putting all the ingredients in the salad bowl at the same time is not the solution.
Choosing the right flour
For baking, there are several flours and it is easy to get lost in the figures indicated on the packet which correspond to the ash rate (T45, T55, T110, etc.). The higher the T, the more complete the flour will be; the lower the T, the whiter the flour will be. In short, for cakes and pancakes, T45 or T55 flour is ideal, preferably of good quality.
Good practices
Even with the best ingredients in the world, the recipe is not guaranteed. To begin, you must first sift the flour, then add the liquid ingredients like milk and eggs. But be careful, you must integrate the liquids gently, with a lot of love. To avoid lumps, mix the mixture with a whisk until smooth. The texture should be smooth, almost creamy and above all very liquid, like a thick soup. If, despite your efforts, the dough contains small lumps swimming in the dough, don’t panic. To make up for it, an electric mixer is a solution. Finally adding oil and a little salt allows you to obtain the perfect pancake batter.
Letting the dough rest is essential
To obtain soft pancakes, the dough must have rested for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. For what ? This allows the dough to create a gluten network, which is essential for thickening the dough. In short, letting the batter rest prevents pancakes from being too thick.
Cooking pancakes
You need to heat a crepe maker of the right size for the size of the crepes you want. To grease the pan, butter is recommended, in order to have a pancake rich in flavor. To have a perfect result, you must keep the heat stable, neither too hot nor too weak. And above all, you must not move away while cooking. Each side takes no more than 2 minutes, and the time flies. Don’t worry, the first and last pancake are always ugly!
How to preserve your successful pancakes?
The last tip, but also the most important, is the proper storage of pancakes. During cooking, keep them warm, covered with a cloth to prevent them from drying out. In the long term, it is advisable to wrap them in cling film and reheat them before eating them.
But the essential ingredient for success always remains love, obviously.