Pancake Day: Road testing the Top 5 online pancake recipes

PANCAKE DAY (13th February 2024) also known as Shrove Tuesday, is almost upon us. The date of Pancake Day changes every year, as Shrove Tuesday, the beginning of Lent, always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday.

So I thought it was time to road-test some pancake recipes, to make it easy for you to whip up a batch of yummy pancakes or crepes, or both, if you wish, for a Tuesday full of sweet treats.

What is the difference between a crepe and a pancake?

Pancakes and crepes both start out as batters poured onto a griddle, or pan and then cooked over high heat. They can be thick and fluffy, which is the American-style breakfast pancake, or wafer-thin and delicate, which is the French-style crêpe, that can also be rolled or folded around a filling.

The main difference between them is that pancake batter has a raising agent in it, such as baking powder or baking soda, and a crepe batter doesn’t. This means that pancakes are thicker and fluffy, while crêpes are thin and flat.

Here is a recipe for delicious French Crepes with Lemon Sugar. I’ve been making this recipe from the original Margaret Fulton Cookbook, for longer than I care to remember. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and the flavours just work well. Serve the crepes the classic way, simply warmed, and sprinkled with sugar and a drizzle of lemon juice, or add some Lemon Curd and whipped cream.

The Five Top Pancake Recipe Contenders

There are literally thousands of pancake recipes available, so I have confined my testing to basic Fluffy Pancake Recipes. As these are very much a make-at-home favourite, my recipe choices are from two well known Australian Chefs/Cooks,  Donna Hay and Adam Liaw, one publication, The Australian Womens Weekly, and two recipes from American bloggers, Cafe Delites and Chefs Steps.

Of course everyones recipes are The Best Ever Recipe, so lets see which ones really do work the best.

Note: All these recipes use a raising agent like baking powder or baking soda, but NOT yeast – that is a whole different category, as are ricotta & buttermilk pancake recipes.

• Australian Womens Weekly: Our best Pancakes
• Donna Hay: Fluffy Pancakes
• Cafe Delites: Best Fluffy Pancakes
• Adam Liaw: The Best Make-Ahead Pancakes
• Chefs Steps: Light & Fluffy Pancakes

1. Australian Womens Weekly – Best Pancake recipe

 Where would  Australian cooks be without the AWW Test Kitchen.

A very straight-forward recipe, made with SR flour and no additional raising agents. I felt it needed some salt.

2. Donna Hay – Fluffy Pancakes

Donna Hay is a leading Australian food editor, best-selling cookbook author and TV presenter. 

Spelt flour was specified in this recipe, a non-wheat flour that is said to produce a lighter texture in baked goods. The pancakes were certainly light in texture and had quite a nutty taste. The mixture did spread quite a bit when it hit the pan.

3. Cafe Delites – Best Fluffy Pancakes

Cafe Delites, is a very popular American food blog with a huge international following.

There is no sugar in this recipe, but I would add 1/4 cup to balance the baking powder, which is more than in most recipes.

As this is an US recipe, I used 55g butter, melted, as the metric conversion. Keep in mind when adding the milk, that a US cup is slightly different, so you may have to add more milk than is specified, I did.

4. Adam Liaw – Make-ahead Pancakes

Adam Liaw, television chef, cookery book author, a MasterChef Australia, winner, and host of a number TV food and travel series.

Having the batter ready in the fridge for breakfast is a real bonus.
This definitely needed salt and I also added the optional vanilla. I did use clarified butter to grease the non-stick pan, as I like the look and taste it gives.

5. Chefs Steps – Light & Fluffy Pancakes

Chefs Steps, another popular American food blog has a team of chefs, writers and video producers working in their kitchen studio.

Great idea to have all the dry ingredients stored in batch-sized airtight containers so you just have to add add the wet ingredients
when cooking. As suggested in the recipe, I added the extra plain flour as a substitute for malted milk powder. Also it was very salty for my taste. I would add vanilla too, to counter-act the salt. This was a very thick mixture, so it took longer to cook through. I used a slightly lower heat so as not to burn them before they were fully cooked.

Top Tips for making great pancakes

• Using old flour or baking soda, just won’t cut it. The baking soda should be less than 6 months old – or it won’t do its job, which is to increase the volume of the batter when it hits the hot pan.
• For best results have all the ingredients at room temperature. Room temperature eggs and milk will make much fluffier pancakes. Also milk thats not ice-cold will also help the melted butter mix into the batter without clumping.
• The Butter. Here’s the thing about butter. It burns really easily, especially when the pan is on medium heat for an extended period of time. The milk solids are what causes the butter to burn, so use clarified butter for best results.
• Don’t over mix the batter: Over-mixing can make your pancakes tough, as it develops the gluten in the flour. Stop mixing when your batter is not quite smooth. Sieve the batter before resting it, rather than over-mixing it.
• Let the batter rest: Set the batter aside for 15-30 minutes. 
• Flipping too early.  This is a common mistake. Don’t flip when you see the first bubbles, but wait until some of the bubbles pop and form holes that stay open on the surface of the pancake – in other words make sure your pancakes are a bit hole-y !

The Best Pancake Recipe Winner is…

The end result with all these recipes was similar, as you can see in the image above. In the end it came down to two recipes, Adam Liaw and Donna Hay.

Overall, for me it was ADAM LIAW’S – MAKE-AHEAD PANCAKES (recipe below) that was my favourite, especially as there were no special flours to purchase and that the batter could be made the night before.