Copycat Perkins Restaurant Pancakes Recipe | CDKitchen.com (2024)

FAQs

What makes restaurant pancakes taste so good? ›

Restaurants tend to use real, farm-fresh eggs and real milk when making their pancakes, which as you might guess, adds to a richer, higher-quality eating experience.

Buttermilk is often used instead of regular milk

Many restaurants use buttermilk instead of dairy or plant-based milk when making pancakes, which changes the interaction of the ingredients before and during cooking — leading to a fluffier, more texturally satisfying, and tastier result.

Pancakes and waffles typically both contain baking soda, which causes them to rise. As soon as the baking soda is combined with the wet ingredients (which contain an acidic ingredient, like often buttermilk), it starts producing carbon dioxide gas bubbles that cause the batter to rise.

Buttermilk – The secret to restaurant-style pancakes is that they're made with buttermilk. If you don't have any on hand, see below for a trick to make your own in a pinch!

IHOP, for instance, requires its pans to be heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and uses Crisco instead of butter to grease it, says Grimm. IHOP also has designated griddles that never cook anything other than pancakes, as Jon Kotez, IHOP's senior manager of field operations support, told Restaurant Business.

Flour is the main ingredient to any pancake. It provides the structure. Different types of flours alter the structure because some flours absorb more moisture or create more gluten (which binds the structure together) than others.

The extra liquid from the eggs gives you a much thinner batter, and therefore much thinner crepes.

The pancakes you get at a restaurant may have more flavor because they use different techniques or secret ingredients. To make your pancakes more flavorful, like at a restaurant, use buttermilk instead of regular milk, add melted butter to the batter, or use a pancake mix with added flavorings.

Before you cook your pancakes, you should allow your batter to 'settle'. 24 hours in the fridge is ample time, but it may have thickened up a little when you take it back out, so just loosen up with a splash of milk. When you come to cook the perfect pancakes, the temperature of your pan is crucial.

The combination of homemade buttermilk (milk and vinegar) and two leaveners (baking powder and baking soda) create lots of air bubbles in the pancake batter, resulting in the lightest and fluffiest pancakes imaginable.

Will adding baking powder to pancake mix make them fluffier? ›

Baking powder, like baking soda, is a chemical leavening agent made with sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) plus a weak acid, such as potassium bitartrate. Baking soda is essential for baked goods, but baking powder is really what makes pancakes and biscuits rise and become so super fluffy.

Note that mayonnaise contains eggs and oil, so it can replace oil or butter as well. This trick may not work as an egg replacement for an allergy or egg-free diet (unless it's a vegan mayo) but it works for those who don't have eggs on hand in a pinch.

Can I Use Water Instead of Milk in Pancakes? Milk adds both flavor and texture to pancake batter, so if you are looking to make pancakes without milk, a simple swap to water doesn't always do the trick. For pancakes made without milk, you'll want to add some flavor through melted butter and vanilla extract.

The same applies to pancakes: adding sour milk makes them fluffier but again, baking soda is required so the acid in the sour milk can have its full effect. If you have a cake or muffin recipe that calls for buttermilk, you can use sour milk instead.