Science of Pancakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Pc7IWGOns&

So I'm quite interested in food from the scientific perspective (hence why I'm on ChefSteps) and I've started doing videos on this.

Anyway, it being Pancake Day, I've been looking at the science behind pancakes - it's quite interesting.

Starch hydration, especially. The way in which you thicken batter and form a more homogenous liquid by allowing the batter to rest - it's pretty cool.

I'd be quite interested to see what your go-to pancake recipes are.

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Pepijn_31744

Great initiative! I applaud anyone trying to get information on food and science out there in an accessible fashion. I do have some constructive criticism for you. I had some problem focusing on either the text and the talk, turns out I'm not a great multitasker. Not sure if that's due to being a non native speaker or my gender, maybe both. If that's something more people found difficult it might be something to look into.

Personally I like thin pancakes. I have the ratios somewhere written down but it's the standard mix of eggs, milk and flour, with some salt and butter of course. I melt the butter and add it to the batter last, not sure if more people do the same.

A_L_Esterling_35269

From Chris Young: An adaptation of Fairholme Manor’s Lemon Ricotta Pancake recipe for use in a whipping siphon.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

5 eggs

180 g ricotta

240 g whole milk

124 g AP flour

100 g sugar

8 g baking powder

Lemon essential oil to taste (or infuse lemon zest in ricotta and milk then strain before loading siphon).

Alex_15760

@Pepijn Thanks for the critical eye. I'll take a look at this for the next video. Incidentally, if you have any topics that you'd like to see - I'd love to hear.

I also add in my fat last but I don't use butter, usually - I use sunflower oil. If we assume that both of them (being fats) serve the purpose of reducing gluten cross-linking, would butter's added appeal be an extra element of flavour? Texture? If I remember correctly, someone stated that butter gives it a "nutty" flavour - is that close to what you experience?

With the recipe from @Chris, a thought: with the use of the whipping siphon, what's the purpose of baking powder? Does it still contribute heavily to leavening or is its role to change batter pH to influence texture?

Pepijn_31744

@AlexL, honestly I've never tried other fats. The reason I always use butter is because it remembers me of the pancakes my mother used to make me when I was a kid. My mom doesn't care for cooking much, but I'll stack her panckaes up against anybody's. Anyway, she always used quite a fair amount of butter in the pan. I lowered the amount of butter in the pan and incorporated the butter in the batter instead. I should definitely try other fats sometime, might be a while though, I'm not much of a pancake kinda guy.

I have made pancakes without the butter, but I think the butter helps with both flavour and texture. In my experience the butter helps the browning of the pancakes as well.

Pepijn_31744

@AlexL, what's your view on using a whipping siphon for pancakes? I've used it to create the thicker 'american' pancakes before and was quite pleased with the result. But watching your video I thought, wouldn't forcing the batter through the siphons nozzle be equivalent of overworking the batter resulting in a chewy texture?