Best Buttermilk Pancakes

If you love thick fluffy pancakes, then this recipe is for you. The white batter was so thick when I placed it into the frying pan that I was afraid I would end up with something more akin to a fried biscuit. But the batter did spread out a bit, and it it turned into very light fluffy pancakes.

This recipe illustrates Cooks Illustrated's cooking concept 42 - double leavening at work. The dry ingredients include both baking soda and baking powder. The wet ingredients include buttermilk (an acid). When the wet ingredients are mixed with the dry, the baking soda reacts and generates lots of carbon dioxide bubbles. The reason you do not want to overmix is often to prevent popping all these bubbles -- and to not develop any gluten.

The batter is allowed to sit for 10 minutes is so the small amount of gluten that does develop will relax.

Now remember - we also added baking powder. That reacts to the heat while cooking, and produces those bubbles that rise to the surface and that when pop, tell us when the pancakes are cooked. Baking soda - which gave the batter the initial set of bubbles - also contributes to brown color on the cooked surface and flavor - the Maillard reaction at work.

The Maillard reaction is complicated, and I still do not really understand it. It involves components from the food (often reducing sugars and amino acids) and heat, and leads to production of new compounds that are larger, pigmented, and to our tongue, delicious.

Who knew a pancake could be so complicated?

Back to eating - I do not care for large fluffy pancakes, I prefer thin eggy pancakes (e.g. swedish pancakes). But these came together beautifully and tasted wonderful. Next time I'll go out of my way to find a low-protein flour and I'll add a bit more milk, so the initial batter is more batter-like.