Howard's Pancakes

Old-school homemade pancakes with no fuss and no boxed mix. Two eggs, a pint of milk, sugar, melted butter, a hefty four teaspoons of baking powder for serious lift, and flour added by feel until the batter pours like thick cream.

The lack of a fixed flour amount is a feature, not a bug. Pancake batter behaves differently depending on humidity, egg size, and how cold your milk is. Adding flour gradually until the batter ribbons off a spoon teaches you to read the consistency, which is the most useful skill any pancake cook can develop.

Four teaspoons of baking powder is a lot for this volume of batter. The result is tall, cakey, fluffy pancakes with a soft tender crumb rather than thin diner-style ones.

Pro Tips

• Aim for a batter thick enough to mound slightly when poured, but loose enough to spread on its own. Too thick and the inside stays raw, too thin and you get crepes.
• Heat the griddle to medium and test with a few drops of water. They should dance and skitter, not vanish instantly.
• Wait until the surface bubbles and the edges look set before flipping. Flipping too early tears the top.
• Keep cooked pancakes warm in a 200°F (95°C) oven on a wire rack so the bottoms don’t go soggy.

Variations

• Stir blueberries or chopped banana into the batter just before cooking.
• Swap half the milk for buttermilk and reduce baking powder to 2 teaspoons. Add ½ teaspoon baking soda for a tangy, even fluffier stack.
• Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of cinnamon for warmer flavor.