How to make pancakes

Google’s number 6!

When you think of pancakes, you think of Shrove Tuesday. It’s the one week a year when the supermarkets wheel out the Jif lemon bottles and produce tempting, end of aisle displays with all you need to create the perfect pancake; from the frying pan to pre-made mix in a bottle. It’s when households up and down the country are pitting family members against each other in the ultimate pancake throwing competition.

But how then, if the humble pancake has its own day in February dedicated to its flat round self, has the question ‘how to make pancakes’ made it to the 6th most ‘googled’ how-to question in Autumn? And what is the secret to making the perfect pancake (if you wish to avoid the unavoidable pancake in a bottle mix!)?

Pancakes aren’t just any breakfast

5 days a week, we might sling a slice of bread in the toaster, top a bowl of Weetabix with banana, or grab a conveniently packed ‘breakfast bar’ as we run out the door in the morning. But pancakes don’t fit here. Pancakes aren’t a breakfast meal to be rushed. Pancakes demand more!

A plate of pancakes is a meal to enjoy. A ritual to be shared on lazy weekend mornings where the rush of modern life, packed tubes and fraught school runs are put on hold for two precious days. The pace slows, we can catch our breath and the most irritating thing to deal with is the kids demanding Alexa plays George Ezra’s Shotgun on repeat from 7.36am. These delightful breakfast treats are made to be accompanied by the Sunday papers, a Spotify chilled playlist or the reassuring hum of families catching up on the week’s activities, triumphs and dramas.

The rise of the Brunch

Modern life is busy and rushed, particularly Monday to Friday. The rise in ‘brunch’ (where our beloved pancakes fit in) is really no surprise (Google searches for Brunch have tripled over the past 5 years), acting as an antidote to our hectic lives and a slow reset for the weekend. Two days out of seven are ‘our own’ so enjoying a lazy brunch with friends is a way of eeking every little moment out of our available social time. Social meet-ups are no longer constrained to later afternoons and evenings.

The rise and social power of the millennials is clearly strengthening the growth of this brunch culture. We know this demographic is all about the experience, entertainment and looks, and let’s face it, a bowl of beef stew and veg, as delicious as it may be, simply doesn’t produce the appealing glossy image that a stack of beautifully created pancakes topped with dripping maple syrup and fresh red berries does. It’s no wonder the #breakfast has a staggering 88.7m posts on Instagram, and #brunch a further 24.9m. For a millennial the perfect Instagram pancake image is vital.

The secret recipe

The wonderful thing about pancakes is their simplicity. A few basic ingredients, and whatever toppings you happen to have in the fridge are all you need to whip up your very own delicious pancakes to enjoy at home, and although it may not come with an expertly made mimosa or someone to wash up, you get to eat it in your PJs! Push the washing up out of shot and you can get your insta-worthy photo and can even add #homemade! After years of making our own pancakes at home, we’ve now honed the recipe for the perfect stack, and we will let you in on a secret. You can trawl endless Google links to recipes but there is one thing to look out for:

Acid.

The key to the fluffiest pancake is to ensure your recipe calls for an acidic element such as buttermilk, or by simply adding vinegar to your milk. Here’s the science; the acid in the buttermilk reacts with the baking soda, making those all-important bubbles. And don’t over mix – that will activate the gluten in the flour and will result in tough and chewy pancakes which will not be well received by your loved ones! The only other essential you need is lashings of maple syrup…we won’t even get into whether bacon is an acceptable pancake topping – the topic is VERY controversial in the Brightful studio!

If all else fails, get someone else to make them

‘How to make pancakes’ might be one of the most searched how-to topics currently on Google, but I’m also sure ‘pancakes near me’ is also highly ranked. The rise of brunch culture means your local high street has seen amazing breakfast cafes popping up in the last few years. With everything from buckwheat pancakes with blueberries to the fattest pancakes topped with ice cream cones on offer, no matter what the time of year it is a great excuse to get up, take a revitalizing stroll into town and enjoy what your local independents have got on their breakfast menu this weekend.

So this weekend as we enjoy the bonfires, fireworks displays and crisp Autumn mornings, why not follow the rising Google trend and swap your work stack for a pancake stack. We’d love to see what you rustle up whilst we wait to see what’s trending on Google in our next article! #morepancakesplease