Every time I tried to make pancakes when visiting Europe from the US (prior to moving permanently) things went a bit, well, screwy. Because of this, I finally sat down and properly weighed and measured everything in metric from a base pancake recipe that I happen to like a great deal and have expanded upon.

The only real issue is cross referencing flour. Flours in Europe and the US are considerably different from one another. If in Europe you’ll need something akin to T55 in France, “Fuerza” in Spain, Type 0 in Italy, etc. Just make sure that it’s a regular white, wheat flour. Doing whole wheat or spelt or something else hearty, while a nice idea, will give you some pretty dense, less interesting pancakes. I know as I started out this way and was pretty unhappy with the initial batches.

Note that liquids are in grams as most measuring vessels are inaccurate and only a scale gives you exact amounts.

The sugar is a base amount, you can increase it if you want for taste, or just add sweeter toppings like whipped cream when serving.

Ingredients:

  • 180g of milk
  • 130g of flour
  • 15g sugar
  • 12g of baking powder
  • 2g salt
  • 40g cooking oil
  • 1 egg

You mix together all of the dry ingredients first. Crack the egg in and mix with with the dry ingredients. Mix in the cooking oil and then the milk.

Be careful with the milk and add just 2/3 first of the total volume and then the final third if needed as this will vary depending on the day, altitude, and humidity. If it’s too thick, carefully add in a bit more milk. If it’s too thin and watery, you’ve basically gone crepe and add in a bit more flour and be careful with the milk next time.

Mix it well, using a whisk (a spoon will not fluff things well enough) but don’t let it sit too long as the baking powder is active once mixed in.

Use whatever kind of pan you prefer (I like cast iron, nonstick is fine too) with butter for each pancake to get them nice and golden, set somewhere around 6/10 on your range. Pour out about two large tablespoons on a pan and cook that side until the batter starts to bubble. Flip and let it cook to golden brown. Remove and repeat until the batter is gone and that’s it, pancakes!