This quick and easy recipe for pancakes involves minimal cooking. Just mix together 7 ingredients and cook. You'll be eating in 15 minutes!
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add egg, vegetable oil, and milk. Use a whisk to mix until just combined. Do not overmix; it's okay to have lumps.
Set batter aside for 5 minutes while you heat an electric griddle to 375F (or medium-high heat on the stove).
If your griddle is non-stick, you don't have to oil it. Otherwise, wipe it with a thin layer of vegetable oil or butter, or spray with cooking spray.
Scoop about ¼ cup per pancake onto the griddle. (If using add-ons like blueberries or M&Ms, add them to the surface of the pancake now.) Cook for 2 minutes, until bubbles pop through the surface of the pancake and the sides begin to look dry.
Flip pancakes, then cook for another minute. Remove from the griddle, and serve.
Make pancakes multigrain by substituting in other flours for portions of the all-purpose flour. Sometimes I substitute in a little barley or millet flour. Buckwheat flour and cocoa powder can be added for no more than ¼ of the flour, but pancakes will be susceptible to scorching.
Make them 100% gluten-free by substituting millet flour for the all-purpose flour. Pancakes will be a little delicate to flip, but will otherwise cook normally.
Tips:
Use a whisk, and mix the batter until just combined. Do not overmix.
Let the batter rest 5 minutes while your pan or griddle heats. This is important as it helps the batter thicken.
Do not stir the batter before scooping it onto the hot griddle, or you will lose some of the bubbles and fluffiness.
I recommend using an electric griddle. You can cook an entire batch of pancakes at once, and it provides uniform heat. If it's non-stick, there's no need to grease it.
If you only want to eat half a batch of pancakes, wrap the remaining pancakes in a couple of layers of plastic wrap and stick them in a freezer bag. You can also refrigerate cooked pancakes and gently reheat them within the next few days. Or, cook half of the batter and refrigerate your leftover batter for a day or two. Do not stir the refrigerated batter before you scoop it onto the hot griddle.
Adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook