Best Quick Pancakes

If you've ever felt like making pancakes from scratch could only happen on weekends, you need to try our best quick pancake recipe. It calls for basic pantry ingredients like flour, baking powder, and sugar, plus fridge staples like eggs, milk, and butter—no buttermilk or whipped egg whites required. After ladling onto a hot griddle or skillet, you'll be rewarded with fluffy, golden-brown pancakes fit for a restaurant brunch. In the mood for banana or chocolate chip flapjacks instead? This recipe works great with add-ins, and will still come out light and fluffy. Pair them with crispy bacon or fried eggs, or serve simply with plenty of maple syrup.

Tips for Golden, Fluffy Pancakes

Use fresh baking powder: This recipe leans heavily on baking powder for leavening, so it's extra important that yours is active and not expired. To test it, add a bit to a small bowl of hot tap water; if it fizzes upon contact, you're in business.

Don't over-mix: Whisk the batter just until no streaks of dry flour remain and it's mostly smooth with some lumps remaining. Overworking the batter can develop too much gluten and deflate air bubbles, making for flat, tough pancakes.

Know when to flip: Flipping pancakes too early can result in underdone, gummy centers. Wait to flip them until bubbles appear on the surface and the edges look slightly dry.

Equipment Needs

This easy recipe requires just a few pieces of basic kitchen equipment, including:

Mixing bowl: You'll only need one mixing bowl for this recipe. Choose a medium-to-large one that provides adequate room for whisking.

Whisk: To evenly incorporate the dry and wet ingredients, reach for a whisk or, in a pinch, a large fork.

Griddle or skillet: An electric or stovetop griddle provides a flat, nonstick surface that's ideal for cooking pancakes, but if you don't have one, a nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet will work just as well.

Pastry brush: It may sound counterintuitive, but you want to use less fat—not more—when cooking pancakes; too much butter in the pan can cause the milk solids to burn and the pancakes to become greasy. If you have a pastry brush handy, use it to brush a light coating of butter on your griddle or skillet. No pastry brush? Drizzle the remaining melted butter on your cooking surface and use a flat spatula to spread it as evenly as possible.

Ladle: A two-ounce ladle is the perfect tool for portioning pancake batter, but you can use a small measuring dry cup or even an ice-cream scoop instead.

Spatula: You'll need a thin, flexible spatula to flip the pancakes. If you're using a nonstick skillet, opt for a silicone spatula to avoid scratching the coating.