instagram

watch-next

Food & Entertaining

Weekend Editor/Contributing Writer

News

Standard Article

Hearst Editorial

- Hey guys, it's Justin from Delish. and today we're going to be recreating. IHOP pancakes. They are the peak of pancake-dom. Went IHOP all the time as a kid. I love these pancakes and before we do anything, before we get into the recipe and talk about what sets these pancakes apart, we're going to try them. (upbeat music) First thing off the bat, they're delicious. They're really light, airy, fluffy. There's like almost like a crumbly texture to them that's amazing. This perfect little butter pad that sits on top, just like really making it like picture perfect. It looks like the picture on the menu and that's exactly what we want to recreate. So really the things that I'm thinking about, are three full: one, we want these perfectly brown uniform tops, not that leopard printed look that you get when you usually cook pancakes at home. Secondly, I love the butter pad. It spreads perfectly. It looks picturesque. And then third, is we want that fluffy, perfect texture and that little bit of tang from the buttermilk. And that comes along with just knowing the exact right ratios and not overwhisking your batter. So, let's get started. First thing we're going to do is we're going to make our whipped butter that we're going to be able to scoop and place on each stack of pancakes. Pro tip, before we go in and with the butter, it needs to be crazy soft. It should be able to put your finger in it, make a little dimple. We're going to go in, two sticks of butter, and two tablespoons of milk, and then we're going to whip it until it is nice and stiff peaks, almost like a whipped cream or a frosting that you can like scoop up into a perfect little ball, put on your pancakes. Really, really simple. Like imagine my hand is a pancake. That's literally what we want to be seeing on top of it, right? It's going to be start melting into it, but also before you put your syrup on, you can spread it really nicely with a butter knife. Now that our butter is whipped, we can start talking about batter. The most important part of this recipe and many other pancake recipes is this big tall glass of buttermilk right here. What it provides is a level of acidity that helps wake up the baking soda and the baking powder that's going to be in this batter to help make very light and fluffy pancakes. First, we're going to go in with our dry ingredients, which is our flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder. We're going to whisk that together until it's all combined. Then we're going to make a little bit of a well, put our buttermilk in the middle of that well, and then our eggs. Whisk that altogether, but really don't overmix. You just want to get it so that all these big clumps are gone. Just getting it mixed together just enough so that it holds together and resembles a batter. And right before we put our whisk away, we're just going to whisk in our melted butter. (upbeat music) Before we even touch the pan, before we even turn on the heat, we're actually going to preheat our oven. A 200 degree oven, a low oven, will actually help to keep them warm, keep them from getting soggy, and now we can actually start making our pancakes. We need two essential tools: one, a really killer non-stick pan. A really good quality non-stick will help to keep it so that you don't need anything to coat the pan so that you can flip them. Delish actually interviewed someone at IHOP to learn how you get that golden perfectly uniform top and bottom on their pancakes and they said it's because they actually don't even use any fat. They just cook the pancakes directly on the griddle and that helps from creating that leopard spotting that you usually see in a normal buttermilk pancake. Secondly, you need a good spatula. I love using something like a fish spatula, something that can really get under there, has a little bit of flexibility to it. We are going to get this up to medium low. You want those pancakes hit that hot pan, get that beautiful golden brown sear on one side. We're going to do a half a cup of batter. It doesn't have to be exact. It can kind of be approximate. Once you go in with it, you kind of want to work quickly to use the bottom of the cup to make a circle shape to make it as round as possible. About four to five inches in diameter. That's usually what you see at IHOP. And once that goes in, don't touch it. Now it's a waiting game. Now we're just going to let it sit and cook. Basically once you see some bubbles rise to the surface, you should see the sides start to pick up and get golden brown and even if you're feeling especially confident, you can take your spatula, take a little peek underneath, see if you're getting that uniform golden color and then once you're ready on the first side, you're going to flip. It should be about two-ish, three minutes on the first side and like a minute and a half on the second. Look at the perfect color on it's uniform. It really truly looks like it's just off the restaurant and there's like a good amount of thickness and airiness. It truly looks exactly like an IHOP pancake and it's so crazy how it is just like this trick of not overmixing and not using any fat in the pan. Like look at this almost crummy, fluffy, beautifulness. Pancakes basically are a vessel for butter and syrup and you've got to do it right, so... It takes it over the top. It's exactly what it needs. These are the closest thing that you can get to IHOP pancakes and I hope the next time that you decide to make pancakes on a Sunday morning, you make these copycat IHOP pancakes. (upbeat music) Until next time, guys. (upbeat music)

In this episode of Copycat Kitchen, Justin shows the 3 easy steps to recreating IHOP's iconic, fluffy buttermilk pancakes.

Here's How To Get Free Pancakes At IHOP Today

Food News