The only recipe you should never make with your KitchenAid mixer

A few weeks ago, I was researching the KitchenAid Stand Mixer and came across a blog post from someone that I thought was not the best advice. The blog post was about making pancakes with your mixer (or any stand mixer). Now the recipe was probably pretty good, but the process is what was flawed in my opinion.

For me, pancakes are all about being soft, light, and fluffy. They should not be dense, chewy, or rubbery in any way. If I wanted that, I could take a trip to one of those late-night breakfasts and get a bunch of hockey puck-lapel cats.

No, for me pancakes should be handled with care and attention. The reason is gluten. Now for a bit of food science. Gluten is a protein, it is actually a composition of 2 proteins called gliadin and glutenin. When water is added to wheat flour and then mechanically mixed, gluten is formed. And it is this wonderful gluten that gives bread dough and pasta their chewy and elastic characteristics. But since the gluten content is increased by mechanical mixing or kneading, it is not something we want to do if we want to have light and fluffy pancakes.

So next time you want to enjoy a good pan-fried breakfast, leave the mixer well packed. Instead, follow this basic cooking process.

You can use any basic pancake recipe that you like. The key to a great result is in the mix. What you need to do is mix all the dry ingredients first in a bowl that is large enough for your batter. Next, mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

Now before adding the wet to the dry, get ready. An electric griddle is probably the best appliance for cooking pancakes at home, but if you have to use a skillet, it will work too. There are 2 differences. An electric griddle has a built-in thermostat, which means that the heat will stay more constant than with a skillet on the stove. Second, the griddle means you can cook many more pancakes at the same time. I use a skillet on the stove myself, but never cook more than one pancake at a time and keep them warm in the oven until ready to serve. It’s not the best, but I don’t have more space to store an iron, so I decided not to buy one. Using my stove, I heat the pan for 2 minutes to level 5. Then I lower the heat to 4 when I cook. If I find that things are taking too long, I raise the temperature for about another minute and then drop back down to 4.

Now that you have a hot cooker ready, it’s time to mix the batter. You want to achieve mixing as quickly as possible without activating too much gluten. So, take the wet ingredients and literally pour them into the dry one. Next, take a spatula and add the wet ingredients for 10-15 seconds. That’s. Some of the dried ones may not be perfectly mixed, but that’s okay. I have never had a lumpy pancake with this method.

Then put some batter on the griddle or in the pan and wait. You want to see the bubbles that form all over the outside of the pancake. That’s the sign of a flapjack that is ready to be flipped. If the heat is high enough, the background will be nice and brown. If it is too low, it will be pale in color, and conversely, if it is too hot, the background will be very dark. So as gently as possible flip the flapjack over and continue cooking the opposite side. Typically, the second side will cook in half the time as the first.

When serving the pancake, always have real maple syrup on hand. You can make a difference in the world and the taste is like no other. Since you put all this care and attention into making the best pancakes you could, you deserve to sweeten them perfectly with a little maple syrup.

There you go. The next time you’re in the mood for some flapjacks, keep the KitchenAid mixer covered and instead use the tipping and folding method for the lightest and fluffiest pancakes you can make at home.