Most people might think of sweet cereal with milk when it comes to American breakfast. However, American pancakes are also a popular breakfast choice among Americans.
The recipe for American pancakes is simple: they have a soft texture and are deliciously sweet, making them an excellent breakfast option.
Pancakes are a type of cake, usually made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent. They possess balloon-like properties, retaining air and expanding with air tension without bursting.
The substance produced by mixing flour with water has good extensibility and elasticity. When making pancakes, flour is the main ingredient. The wet gluten formed by mixing flour and water into dough generates steam when baked. With higher baking humidity, the steam pressure increases, exerting greater force on the wet gluten.
As a result, the layers of batter continually expand due to heat until all the water in the gluten is completely baked off, causing the product's volume to increase eight to ten times its original size.
The structured material that creates layers is the second factor contributing to their expansion. Pancake dough is manipulated by incorporating numerous layers of regular fat into the mixed dough. These layered fats and dough isolate each other, forming distinct layers in the dough. Upon baking, they interact: the steam pressure from the moist gluten heats the lower dough layers, pushing up the upper layers.
This process continues, layer by layer, until the fats within each layer melt due to heat, permeating the dough and replacing the original moisture. This results in each dough layer becoming fluffy and crispy, ultimately creating a tasty and fluffy pancake.
Recipe:
1. Prepare an egg yolk, 5g melted butter, and 60g milk in a bowl, and mix thoroughly. If there's no butter, colorless and tasteless vegetable oil like sunflower seed or corn oil can be used as a substitute.
2. Sift 50g cake flour into the bowl. If there's no cake flour, regular flour mixed with 1/3 cornstarch can be used as a substitute.
3. Mix the batter until smooth, resembling a thick yogurt consistency.
4. Beat an egg white from one egg with 10g of fine sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter until well combined, avoiding stirring in circles to prevent deflation.
6. Preheat a non-stick skillet without oil, and pour the batter into the skillet, allowing it to naturally spread into a round shape with some space between each pour.
7. Cook over low heat, occasionally moving the skillet for even heating. When fine bubbles appear on the surface, flip the pancake and cook for another 2-3 minutes before removing from the skillet.
Soft and sweet, enjoying these for breakfast is pure happiness!
