why are pancakes always better at restaurants how do you know when to flip the pancake how do you get it so fluffy how do we get this perfect color every single time these are questions that I'm going to answer today on why it's always better at restaurants here's a question that you probably are wondering and why is it that we use buttermilk for pancakes or why are they considered like the best ingredient for pancakes that is acidity and this kind of this kind of blew my mind when I learned it um so the buttermilk it's kind of acidic right that's not just for Taste although it does add like a nice Tangy flavor that might sound weird to you for your pancakes but it's actually nice the main reason for the acidity is because it's going to break down that gluten and tenderize the gluten for the pancakes therefore making the pancakes like softer fluffier another thing is the chemical reaction when mixed with uh this stuff right here baking powder see the acidity of the buttermilk when it mixes with the baking powder what it's going to do is it's going to create this carbon dioxide which is the little gas bubbles that happen in the pancake and that's going to make it rise more so if you mix the acidic buttermilk plus the leavening agent it's going to cause that carbon dioxide chemical reaction situation making it even more fluffier so so you're getting like three things you're getting like the nice flavor from the buttermilk you're getting the acidity to break down the gluten to make it nicer texture and then of course you're getting the chemical reaction with the baking soda to make it lighter and airier that was a lot to say okay now butter why do I add butter to pancakes and why is it typically in pancakes for one butter is delicious it's good come on it's fat but another reason why you add fat to pancakes is because it's making it softer by coating those gluten particles now here is one of the biggest reasons for using butter and that is you notice this right here it's nice and yellow do you know when you leave butter in a pan too long and it starts to get brown that's called caramelization because the milk Sals are becoming caramelized before they burn cuz you left it on the pan too long and you let it burn that that happens to me a lot uh but yeah my point is when you add this to your pancake batter it also adds to that development of caramelization which adds to the color of your pancakes so your pancakes are actually going to have like a nicer more golden color if you use butter as opposed to like another Fat like canola oil or something like that now you're probably wondering why I'm putting everything into this container I have a really good reason for it see this is known as a deli container cork container and I use this because this is what I'm used to I used to make pancakes for family meal at work a lot a lot of people requested my pancakes I really lik them but this is just the perfect measuring tool to me see right here is a pint right here is a quart a half of a pint is a cup and then a half of a cup is you know a half cup right there so I can pretty much eyeball it and know where I'm at so this is like my perfect mixing measuring device and also really good for drinking water out of anyways I'm adding all my wet ingredients together because I don't want to over mix the pancakes this is a maple sugar by the way I just love maple sugar it's delicious if you want you could also use um maple syrup once again eyeballing this is about 2 tablespoons but yeah I don't want to over mix the pancakes so what I do is I don't know if this is the correct term for it but in culinary school they called it the muffin method and I guess that's cuz muffins is this method you mix liquids together first and then you mix the the dries together first and then you put them all together um I know it's sounds counterintuitive cuz you just saw me add a dry but technically I want this to dissolve into my wet because it's not going to dissolve with the salts just add the sugar to this anyways if I mix the flour in this it's going to take longer therefore I'm going to have to mix it longer therefore it's going to really work that gluten and it's going to make make for a much tougher product so I like to mix all of my wet first and then my dry and then put them together so I don't overwork that flour because it's not very forgiving when you over mix that stuff oh almost forgot the vanilla this is an optional thing I mean we don't need to put vanilla in everything sweet just like we don't need to put pepper and everything Savory but I do love vanilla paste in my pancakes this is not just normal flour this is cake flour see cake flour is much lighter now the reason why it's much lighter is because it's miliner Milling is just like the grind but here's the other thing it's got a lower protein content which means it's going to produce less gluten therefore it's not going to be as tough if I were to say overwork it a bit but also it's more forgiving this is going to produce a lighter pancake hence why it's called cake flour it's made for cakes pretty much so if you can get some cake flour and do it up I highly suggest it it's definitely worth it okay so this right here is baking powder and why do I use baking powder why is it used in like every pancake recipe the reason is this is what's known as a leavening agent that's just a fancy word for this is going to make it rise and be nice and fluffy and this will react [Music] with and this is going to react with with the batter in a really interesting way what it's going to do is it's going to create little gas bubbles it's going to create garbon garbon carbon dioxide and therefore making it rise and be nice and fluffy now could you use soda water for this I don't know um get back to me on that let me know if it works and then I always add a little pinch of salt it's a nice nice touch uh but yeah just I give this like a good mix mix I don't put the sugar in this just because I want the sugar to dissolve into my wet prior why do I add the dry into the wet and not the wet into the dry now we're getting it sounds crazy right like who gives a you already mix both of them separately just mix it however you want no I I kind of prefer to mix the dry into the wet let me explain see if I were to mix this into this I'm still going to have like dry in here that I got to scrape but this case all of that dry is going in and all I have to do is worry about scraping the wetness it's just going to mix together a lot better if that makes sense um this might sound kind of crazy but there is a a process to the meth a method to the process I don't really know the saying method to the process method to the madness method to the madness Okay so check this out remember I mentioned the baking powder is going to react and it's going to cause carbon dioxide the little Bubbles as you can see already we've got some bubbl going on in here it's starting to Bubble so it's going to react twice it reacts when it's cold and then it reacts with heat so once I put it on the pan and add heat that's another chemical reaction we're getting causing even more bubbles so two for one package now I'm wondering if I were to add lemon juice would it do the same thing if I didn't have buttermilk probably if you don't have buttermilk at home try this out add a touch of lemon juice to your milk and it could give you like that same reaction and you might have a nice uh a nice brightness to your pancake it's pretty good now why does my mom always say you got to have lumps in your pancake batter that might sound kind of wrong like hey why do you want we want lumps of flour in here but actually but actually we do want the lumps of flour in our batter see what it's going to do is it's going to create little air pockets and that's going to react and it's it's going to cause like these fluffy air bubbles to happen and you're going to have like nice variations of texture going on I know it's a lot it's just a pancake chill out but these are all things that add up and make it much better if you think I'm explaining too much stuff let me know I I kind of I don't know I feel like I'm saying too much okay now how do I cook this stuff I'm going to let you in on something uh reason why it's better at restaurants they do them on flat tops I did mine on flat tops for family meal but you can do them on a cast iron skillet because cuz it's basically the same it's going to hold the heat better I prefer this over a non-stick pan it's just so much better for the cakes now here's my process I do a little little spray of this and I always have a towel on deck and I just wipe it clean I wipe it nice and clean I don't want to have like a lot of fat on there cuz then it's going to cause the cake to sort of have like a weird like bubbly sear which is fine it's just not like the beautiful pancake that I'm going for here and look the shape is up to you this is this is it this is your time to shine do a dollup do a giant dollup whatever you want it's a pancake remember at the end of the day it's just a pancake now how do I know when this pancake is ready to flip well my mom always told me when the bubbles stop that's when you pretty much know but here's another thing you can do you can check if these edges are starting to sort of set because obviously they're going to set before the middle and see like right here I can see my edges starting set but if you want if you can you would just gently lift the edge of the pancake and see like are we getting some good color and then from there I can see I'm ready to flip your first Pancake isn't always going to be perfect that's always a mystery to me but um it maybe it's because it takes a little practice here and there but as you can see like you know that's a nice looking pancake right now I have it at 330° F on the skillet to me that's the perfect heat it's a medium heat it's not going to Brown it too much before the inside gets to cook so it's a good [Music] heat all right now don't judge that flip I was trying to hold the camera while flipping it but anyways here's my setup here's what I would do at work all the time cuz I would make a lot of Pancakes I would would take them from there straight to a pan of some sort like this this is lined with the spray and some parchment so it doesn't stick I put it into here put into here just like this and then I cover it of course excuse me and then it goes right into the oven the oven is set to warm or you could just have the oven off whatever and that's just going to keep them warm while I'm still making more pancakes and I just keep putting them in there I think my love for MCG griddles came from my Aunt Sherry by the way she would make me this concoction that I don't know why a lot of people gross out about it was a pancake and then between the pancakes she would put scrambled eggs American cheese or even like a shredded cheese and bacon pancake on top of that maple syrup over everything Perfection man and that's why I think the M griddle is the best in convention ever it's got like that the like crystals of maple syrup in the bun of the the freaking pancake bun and then you got the egg sausage cheese like it's it's delicious but anyways my aunt Sher would make Aunt Sher would make me that it was so freaking good these pancakes are looking nicer as we go as you can see look at that beautiful you know I love how every culture has some sort of carb some sort of bread to share and this one I mean it's so simple but if you like do all these steps right it makes it so much better I used to love making this for family meal a lot I here's the thing I also used to just love making family meal at work um there's just something about feeding the people that you care about and I guess this is why you do these extra steps because you care about them right so um it might seem like it's a little overkill for just a pancake but I asked you guys questions on what makes the pancakes better at restaurants on my broadcast channel Discord everywhere so I mean if you want to just um even like post your comments Down Below on like what you want to see next with this series and why you think so and so is better at home or at restaurants if you think it's better at home let's see it post your photo now I always say hot plate hot food so this is why I'm doing this why not get the chill off just get the chill off before you put hot food on there also how does it look good