The First Pancake, Demystified

The first pancake.  It’s a phenomenon that persists, even with the most experienced pancake makers.  Everyone knows what it looks like: very thin, lighter in color.  It’s such a common occurrence that a web search for “first pancake phenomenon” brings up a myriad of Q&A threads, blog entries and articles about this subject.  The phrase “the first pancake” has become universally known to describe something that is a first draft, or a throw-away as in the first attempt at something new.  In my home, it is understood that the first pancake is the one that starving children (and parents) will fight over while waiting for the “good ones” along with the rest of breakfast to finish being made.  Well, no longer!  I have found some secrets to getting fluffy, yummy pancakes whether from a mix or from scratch, and some tips on making the first one as perfect as the last.

Although all of the following tips hold true for batter made from a mix or from scratch, here is the recipe I used for my pancake batter, adapted from the Better Home and Gardens New Cookbook (my favorite book to experiment from):

Pancakes:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 T granulated sugar

1 T baking powder

¼ t salt

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 ½ cups milk

3 T cooking oil

1. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl use a fork to combine egg, milk and oil.  Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be slightly lumpy). 

2. For each standard-size pancake, pour about ¼ cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet, spreading batter if necessary.  For dollar-size pancakes, use about 1 tablespoon batter.  Cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are golden brown, turning to second side when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry.

Mixing the Batter

Apparently, mixing batter is key to tenderness.  Toughness is a sign of over-mixing or too much flour in relation to the liquid (make sure the flour to liquid ratio is 1:1 or thereabouts).  The wet and dry ingredients should be mixed until thoroughly moistened, but ignoring a few lumps throughout.  Completely smoothing out the batter will make tough, poorly leavened pancakes and under-mixing will give cakes with uneven consistency containing “pockets” of dry ingredients.  The right amount of mixing means the difference between fluffy pancake heaven and "just a pancake."

Don't worry about a few lumps in your batter!

Here is the important part: let your batter rest for about 10-15 minutes before cooking to allow the leavening to begin.  Not giving your batter this time gives the first pancake the characteristic thinness.  (Aha! No wonder why the pancakes in the middle of the batch are usually so perfect…)

Making the ‘Cakes

Pre-heat the pan or griddle.  You’ll know the pan is hot enough but not too hot when a drop of water “dances” (seriously, two different sources in my research described it this way) as opposed to sizzles, which means the pan is too hot. 

Once you have determined that your cooking surface is the perfect temperature it’s time to grease it.  You can use spray, oil, butter or shortening to grease the surface, but then you must use a paper towel to wipe the surface dry before pouring your first pancake.  This ensures even heating and browning.  Too much grease means that the pancake absorbs it and fries instead of bakes.  Don’t worry, the pocked surface of the pan trapped some of that grease and there will still be plenty there after you’ve wiped it off!  I usually didn’t grease between pancakes, and this is probably at least partially why the non-first pancakes were turning out better.

For pancakes to become perfectly round pour at a steady rate from just above the pan, not too high.  The pancakes are ready for turning once bubbles have risen to the surface then burst and the edges are dry.  It is important not to lift the pancake to check the underside until this happens!   When the bubbles pop and the edges are dry, check to see that the pancake is browned to your liking.  If so, slide your pancake turner under the pancake then lift and flip the pancake in one smooth motion to set it on the uncooked side.  For a novice, this is much easier said than done, and you may still end up with a “first pancake” or two until you get the hang of it.  Each side should be cooked approximately 2-3 minutes each.

Temperature control is key.  If pancakes aren’t ready to be turned before bottoms are getting too brown, turn the heat down. 

From Bottom to Top: Perfectly mixed, under-mixed, and over-mixed pancakes.

Pancakes should be served with the first side that was browned facing up.  You can get creative when topping these babies too.  Try powdered sugar, or pureed fruit instead of the old standby syrup.  You can even mix some nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips into the batter if you’d like!  I think I’m going to try making some with whole wheat flour…

AND…Pancakes can be frozen! Just put some wax paper between pancakes and place them in a freezer zip bag.  Thaw them in the toaster or microwave for a snack or breakfast on the run.


Share any tips I left out in the comments section below!

So, go have some fun making some delicious, fluffy pancakes!  And with some practice, you’ll be making your last ever first pancake.   ~M

Sources:
McWilliams, Margaret. Food Fundamentals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2009. Print.

Webber, Roxanne. "Why Does the First Pancake Always Turn Out the Worst?" CHOW - Recipes, Cooking Tips, Resources, and Stories for People Who Love Food. 16 Dec. 2008. Web. 9 Jan. 2011. <http://www.chow.com/food-news/54864/why-does-the-first-pancake-always-turn-out-the-worst/>.

Bleedin' Armadillo Cake

Ugh.  I can't stand being late.  And here I am, a couple weeks late on my first promised experiment.  It was my wish to do something seasonal, like gravy, or how to roast a turkey for my first "experiment" but alas, I have been up to my knees in classwork and life's general day-to-day, and Thanksgiving Day has come and gone.  Thanksgiving week with our family was hectic, as it is for most families who travel to be with loved ones.  We stuffed our car full with essentials for four people, ingredients for cooking, schoolwork (and good intentions to do that schoolwork) and got on the three-and-a-half-hour road home for a dinner each with my family and my hubby's family.  This year, our celebrations included a belated birthday party for my husband, who turned 30 earlier in the month.

So, this month, instead of "How to Roast a Turkey" I give you "Armadillo on a Turkey Platter":

I know, it's not really the sort of thing I promised to write about in this blog, but it's what I've been spending my time on.  We'll get back on track next time, I guess :)

One of the things I always jokingly said to my husband as we climbed into our late 20's was that I would bake him a "Bleedin' Armadilla" cake for his thirtieth birthday because he loves that scene from Steel Magnolias when Drum Edenton holds up his tail-end piece of armadillo cake and says, "Thanks, 'Ouisa, nuthin' like a good piece of ass!"

As his thirtieth birthday grew closer, I began to think that this was something I could actually pull off.  After all, I had already dabbled in unusually-shaped cakes for friends and family, previous birthday parties for our son (Curious George's head, a dinosaur, flip-flops on the sand, to name a few) and I had just recently worked with fondant for the first time to help a friend with some cupcakes for a baby shower.

So I searched for "bleeding armadillo" cake images on Google and found a plethora of pictures of wonderful cakes, both home-made and professionally crafted.  I watched videos on YouTube for working with fondant, and how to paint it and give it texture.  I got myself really excited for this challenge!  I used the pictures I found on Google of other people's cakes in addition to pictures of actual armadillos for reference to decide how I wanted to make it.  I settled upon aiming for one that was a good blend between cartoonish and realistic.

Troubleshooting

Most people who posted or blogged about their armadillo cake said they used a Wilton football-shaped pan, so I bought one right away.  When my pan came in the mail, I admired it, then put it in the cupboard without a second thought until it was time to bake the cake.  I chose Paula Deen's red velvet cake recipe that I found on the Food Network site (Grandmother Paula's Red Velvet Cake).  I learned a really cool trick online for substituting the cake flour the recipe called for with all-purpose flour too!  You simply replace one tablespoon of each cup of all-purpose flour with cornstarch.  This seemed to work perfectly (once I got the cake to do what it was supposed to do....).

I placed by first batch of cake batter which happened to be meant for two 8-inch rounds, in the pan and it filled the pan perfectly.  I placed in the oven that was pre-heated to 350˚ F (per recipe instructions) and set the timer for twice as long as what the recipe called for, thinking this would be appropriate for the doubled amount of batter in one pan.  This was  a mistake!  An hour later, I ended up with a football-like cake that was the crispiness of a cookie on the sides and bottom, but completely runny in the middle.  Cake: 1, Me: 0.

Figuring that I needed to lower the temperature and cook the cake slowly for a longer amount of time, that is just what I did on the second batch of cake batter.  This time, the problem was that the cake stuck to the indentations on the pan meant to create "laces" on the football.  This caused the cake to have big chunks missing on the top (Cake:2, Me:0) but I was able to make the chunks fit back in and cement them in place with some buttercream icing, and decided to use this cake as a bottom layer.  Ha! Cake:2, Me: 1.

For the second layer, I decided I would get serious about getting the pan to fully release the cake, so I took extra special care to grease every single indentation, and flour every spot on the pan.  I also used shortening instead of the vegetable oil I used with the other ones.  This seemed to do the trick; I ended up with a cake cooked all the way through, shaped perfectly like a football with recognizable laces and everything :)

Decorating
This was my first time working with fondant on a large scale.  My previous experience had been in making little decorations to top cupcakes, so I was anxious about how easy or difficult it would be to work with in covering a cake.  The pros on TV all make it look so easy, but every time I watched one of them do it, I was sure that it was just a disaster waiting to happen in the hands of someone less experienced.  But even so, I figured it couldn't be any worse than the result if I were to try and make buttercream look like armadillo skin, and I did make someone a promise.  It turned out that fondant is pretty simple to work with if you take your time and relax.

To make the armadillo's head and body, I cut one end of the football-shaped layers off at a spot that I thought looked like they could be shoulders.  Then I used the parts I cut off to construct a head.  I filled the layers with chocolate butter cream and secured the top layer with barbeque skewers since that's all I had.  Once all the layers were covered with fondant, skewers also held the head in place.

I used the "Duff" (as in The Ace of Cakes) black buttercream flavored fondant.  I used most of the two 2-lb. tubs that I purchased from Michael's to make a covering for the head and body made from cake, and constructed the ears, feet and tail entirely out of fondant.  Before putting the fondant on the cake, I iced it with chocolate buttercream icing to hold the fondant on.  I used a fondant cobblestone impression tile to give the skin some texture before placing it on the cake and painting it.  I chose a silver spray to paint the fondant with which worked really well until I ran out 2/3 of the way through.  It was a good thing I had bought a yellowish gold pearl dust as a back up plan!  I mixed the dust with enough vodka to give it a watercolor consistency with the color I liked (less liquid makes the color more intense).  Using vodka was a way to get around melting the fondant with water.  I did watch some videos on YouTube of people using water with success, but I wanted to take as many precautions as possible, and I liked the idea of making a "drunken" armadillo!  (Alcohol is also more volatile and will evaporate and dry faster than water.)  I painted the armadillo with light sweeps of the brush across the cobblestone texture so that the little nooks and crannies would stay black and give my little guy more depth and texture and left him to dry over night.

  

The armadillo was a smash hit at my husband's party and I was happy that he liked it so much.  He even insisted that we act out his favorite scene so that he could say his favorite line!  The cake was tender and moist with a hint of chocolate flavor, and it went well with the chocolate buttercream.  This was definitely my favorite cake project to date because of the level of challenge it provided as well as the awesome outcome.

So, that's what I've been doing this month when I'm not studying or taking care of the kids!  I would say that I'll have another post for you in a couple of weeks to make up for how late I am with this one, but I'm not going to kid myself, it gets so busy around Christmas!  So, I hope you and your family have an amazing holiday, and in case you don't hear from me before then, Happy New Year!!

Be well,
Melissa

Meet Your Food Perfectionist

Welcome to my laboratory notebook! My laboratory is a tiny galley kitchen with not-so-high-tech gadgets that I make due with in order to feed my curiosity and my appetite. A mother and wife, I am a non-traditional undergraduate student at James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. If all goes according to plan, I should graduate with a Bachelor's in dietetics in May of 2012, then hopefully become a registered dietitian! 

Food is a passion of mine--I love to eat! I personally don't believe that any food is inherently good or bad, but that under- or over-eating and/or choosing foods that make a diet imbalanced is what contributes to disease and poor health.

This blog isn't about cooking "healthy" food. It's about learning and perfecting the techniques that create desirable qualities in food like lightness and fluffiness in baked goods, or tenderness in a cut of meat. I am not a professional cook by any stretch of the imagination, just someone who wants to emulate one. Nothing beats the feeling after attempting to cook something for the first time and accomplishing it without too many goof-ups. I take pride in following recipes to the letter, and pat myself on the back when the final product is "perfect."  I want to know why recipes call for certain ingredients or techniques and what these things do to make the dish so good!  I figure, if I know these things, then I can make a perfect cake/egg/steak/pasta every time, and this means even more food bliss for my belly.  Who knows, maybe I can even get to the point where I can create recipes because I know the formulas?

So, here's my plan:  I will research different things to make and perfect then every month I'll post the things I learned along with a recipe detailing how I got the perfect (hopefully) result.  We can learn together!  Even with all this geekiness, I know that no dish can be perfect without some joy and love going into the process, so I always include those two ingredients as well!  

This blog is a new adventure for me in many ways.  With this blog, I will attempt to fit more cooking into my crazy busy schedule, learn to expand and perfect my bag of cooking "tricks" and learn the ins and outs of being a blogger.  Thanks for joining me, I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I am sure I will :)

See you next month!
~Melissa