Pancake Hope

After months of frustration, I may finally be on the trail of a solution to my pancake failures. This has been a long, long frustrating road. I have come closer to slinging a skillet through the window or crying over pancakes than I would ever have imagined. No other food experience in my entire life has provoked such long-lasting frustration.

And then, tonight, I made the best pancakes I've seen since December! They're still not absolutely perfect, but they are a vast improvement on what I've been producing.

The answer? Well, answers...

I have been doing diligent work to reduce refined starches and sugar in my diet. In my zeal, I may have gone a little too far. Both for taste and for browning, I just need more sweetener in the batter.


The larger, hidden factor: my skillet. When choosing which kitchen implements to include in this tiny kitchen (we now live in a travel trailer), I selected one non-stick skillet. Therein lies the main reason for these months of pancake failure. There is just something about this skillet that does not cook pancakes properly! Now, the skillet I've been using was actually a replacement for the first one I'd chosen. That one had a light colored ceramic lining. The current skillet does a slightly better job- it has a more traditional, darker lining...but it's pretty lightweight. It was cheap- what can I say. ;)   There have been times when it has taken fifteen minutes per side to get pancakes to brown, and they were still raw batter in the middle. Revolting, and a massive waste of time.

Tonight, to test my theory, I have used Lee's small egg skillet to cook my pancakes. The results are balm to my soul. They are browning, and they are mostly cooked in the middle. A little more fine-tuning on the consistency of the batter, and I think I'll have it nailed.

Ironically, cooking two batches of pancakes one single cake at a time in this small skillet has actually been faster than cooking several at a time in the large skillet!

I have added a new skillet to my shopping list for tomorrow. Life is too precious to waste so many hours on revolting pancakes of disappointment when a new skillet can solve everything.

I'll take some more time to choose it than I did the last one- making sure it has a dark lining and a nice, heavy bottom. I may have to spend a few more dollars than I did last time, but it will be worth it.
(I usually buy my pots and pans at Ross Dress For Less- I can generally find higher quality tools for less money than at a department store. I do love a good deal.)  :)

It is a sincere, deep relief to have finally solved this unbelievably frustrating mystery.