Pancakes

For our third workshop, we ventured into the making of one of the most popular breakfast foods in America, PANCAKES! While I personally prefer the Japanese souffle version of the pancake, after watching some of the other groups struggling to whisk the meringue while making the souffle pancakes, I definitely felt lucky that I got the batter recipe. 😛

We first measured out both wet and dry ingredients to be used for our pancakes. According to the recipe, the ingredients included:

• Flour is the most basic ingredient required in a pancake and contains the chemical compounds of glutenin and gliadin, which when combined with water, forms gluten. Gluten is a protein mesh that traps the CO2 gas bubbles created by the baking powder. However, too much gluten will cause the pancakes to be tough. Flour was also sifted to ensure that the ingredients can be mixed evenly as well.
• Baking powder is a leavener used to create the light and fluffy texture of pancakes. A leavener is basically a powdered acid and base which reacts together when heated to produce CO2. The batter traps the gas and when cooking, the batter expands and solidifies around the gas bubbles, which explains the holes one sees when the pancake is cooking/ being eaten! The more bubbles there are, the lighter, fluffier and taller the pancakes would be.

Baking powder can be replaced with buttermilk, an acidic mixture which also helps to create the height in fluffy pancakes. Harmless bacteria consume sugar added to the pancake mixture, releasing lactic acid. The lactic acid reacts with baking soda (base), producing carbon dioxide gas.

Another alternative to buttermilk would be to add one tbsp of lemon juice : one cup of milk, which provides the acid required for the reaction with baking soda to produce the CO2 gas bubble. Adding more baking soda will increase Millard reaction as well.

• Salt & Sugar are added for taste purposes. Although sugar is also added when buttermilk is used to promote the acid-base reaction between buttermilk and baking soda.
• Eggs & Milk were added to facilitate the binding of the gluten molecules into a network by making them more flexible. Eggs also help to increase the amount of protein in the mixture and milk, being a liquid, thins out the batter.
• Butter is used not only to give pancakes the buttery flavour from the chemical compound diacetyl found in butter and promote Millard reaction, it is also used to add some fat into the pancake batter to slow down the gluten formation, preventing your pancakes from becoming too tough.

Many other recipes out there use buttermilk instead which contains the chemical compound diacetyl, also found in butter, to replicate the buttery flavour in pancakes.

• Vanilla extract contains vanillin, a primary chemical compound found in the extract of vanilla beans which enhances the flavour of the pancakes.

Batter shouldn’t be left out for too long as well to prevent the carbon dioxide gas from escaping. Also, it’s been found that over-mixing batter can make the pancakes tough too because mixing the batter increases gluten formation and too much gluten formed results in tough pancakes.

Millard Reaction

A reaction combining heat, protein and sugar that produces the delicious brown surface and aroma of food. This reaction happens more in a basic environment. Therefore, more baking soda increases the chances of Millard reaction happening. Too much baking soda however, will speed up the reaction too quickly and cause the food to have a burnt taste.

A little melted butter/ oil is said to improve Millard reactions as well.

Heat of Pan

The final factor of making pancakes is the heat of the pan. Since we were not instructed on the level of heat of the pan, we started off with a low heat which resulted in under-cooked pancakes like:

However, after we adjusted the heat to a higher one after, we managed to make rather decent pancakes. Curious about what was a decent heat for making pancakes from this experience, I went back to research and it turns out that there’s no perfect temperature for cooking pancakes. Through research though, it has been suggested that the pan should be “hot enough for the pancake to brown in less than a minute, but not so hot that the batter “sets” when you put it on the pan, before it has time to spread.” Guess I’ll try that out the next time I make my own pancakes.