Restaurant Style Giant Pancakes or Best Pancakes Ever!

As I promised to deliver, here’s a recipe for the most amazing giant pancakes ever. They’re light and fluffy inside and have the density to hold together when you flip ’em. I’ve been looking for a recipe like this that mirrors the giant pancakes from local restaurant, St. Francis. They serve an awesome brunch on the weekends. But, all my pancake recipes were either too thin or too dense to build a giant cake that baked all the way through before it burned.

Why do I care about giant pancakes so much??

Thanks for asking. Here’s why.

Problem 1: Pancakes take too long. I don’ t have a griddle and I hate standing at a hot stove forever making a bunch of thin little pancakes. Ugh.

Solution: Giant cakes.

Problem 2: I don’t really like them that much. Ironic, since this is the second pancake recipe on the blog. My other recipe is a dairy free, eggless pancake. It’s delicious but problem 1 still applies.

Usually, pancakes are just too heavy for me and I’d rather have something light and cool for breakfast like a smoothie. But lately, DGirl has been too “busy” to finish even her smoothies. So, I’ve been wracking my brains to find food she doesn’t want to “save for later”.

I confess I resorted to food that is traditionally covered in sugar.

Well, syrup. Same thing.

How’s that for an Organic Mama???

After a full day of holding Giant Baby last week (how I spend most of my time since he’s teething), I had to make a relatively fast dinner of the scant ingredients left in our cupboards and fridge at week’s end. We had plans that night with friends and we needed to move quickly.

So, I grabbed a pancake recipe I’d found on pinterest. Rob asked doubtfully, “Are you sure we have time to make pancakes??”

“Of course!” I answered. I then proceeded to completely change the recipe.

hehehe…

Apparently I’m physically incapable of just following a recipe as it’s written. A little imp in my head always whispers, “This would be better with ____”.

In this case, it whispered something about every ingredient.

And, guess what? I not only made my deadline, they were the best pancakes ever!

Man, after that buildup, I hope you’re not disappointed.

This recipe makes 7 giant (HUGE, handspan) pancakes – modeled after the big flapjacks at St. Francis. That probably translates into about 20 normal sized ones. This definitely a family sized recipe but the good news is, you can make them all and refrigerate to heat up later. They still taste good re-heated.

Let me know what you think!

Start with 3 c. flour. I didn’t sift it. Just scooped it out of the bag. Hey, I was in a hurry!

Add the baking powder.

And the salt.

Just a bit of sweetness…

Stir it all together. You want to be sure to evenly distribute the baking powder. I just used my measuring spoon.

Part of the levening genius of these cakes!

I think this is actually the secret to the amazing texture of these pancakes. Buttermilk. Yum. Not only are they a levening agent (fluffing power), they add the perfect depth of flavor.

For some reason, vanilla in my pancakes reminds me of Disneyland!

One thing I FORGOT to take a pic of – is the melted butter. That goes in now and it’s delicious. Mine got a tad browned and it just added that much more deliciousness.

Let’s just have a moment of silence for butter. My favorite flavor of all.

<BUTTER.>

Yes, I’m my Grandma’s true child.

Remember to put in the butter!

Moving on.

After you add the water, gently stir the batter just enough to mix the ingredients. It’s ok if it’s a tad lumpy. It will be super thick like frosting.

When you spoon it into the pan, spread the batter around a little. It shouldn’t be much more than 1/4″ high or it won’t cook all the way through before the outside burns.

This was the pan I melted the butter in so no judgement okay? No sense wasting good butter!

See how the bubbles are starting to pop through the surface of the pancake? You should see these all over the top before you flip it!

The bottom should be golden brown before flipping!

Aaaaannnnnndddddd…… FLIP!  See how perfect mine looks? Yeah, that’s how I roll.

Just kidding. It actually “squooshed” a bit but I just smooshed the batter back under the pancake.

What my family doesn’t know won’t hurt ’em.

And – TAAAADAAAAAAAAA!  This is what we had for dinner.

Only nobody really ate 4. I couldn’t eat a whole cake, it was so big. That’s ok. More for later.

Awesome, right? I’m not kidding. These ROCK.

High words of praise in this house.

If you think these look as good as I do, share with your friends. Check out the new Pinterest button!