Italian American Pancakes | Pancake Americani

Sep 29

11 min read

Pancake Americani (Italian American Pancakes)

The American pancake did not come from Italy, and the Italian kitchen adopted it anyway. This version uses buttermilk for a tall, tender, lightly golden stack, then finishes it the Italian way, with mascarpone, berries and honey instead of a river of syrup. The batter takes four minutes and the cooking moves quickly.

Yield: 4 servings, about 10 pancakes. Prep: 10 minutes. Cook: 20 minutes. Difficulty: easy. Course: breakfast or brunch.

The Story

Flat batter cooked on a hot stone belongs to every grain culture in history. What is specifically American is the leavening. The tall, risen pancake depends on chemical rising agents, a nineteenth century invention: first pearlash, then saleratus, then baking soda and baking powder, the last of them commercial in the 1840s and 1850s. Once a cook could raise a batter in minutes with an acid and a base, the pancake became the breakfast of farms, lumber camps and diners, and in 1889 the first boxed pancake mix turned it into a national habit.

Buttermilk was the acid. It was the tangy liquid left in the churn after the butter was made, and every farm kitchen had it. Its sourness reacted with soda to lift the batter, and its acidity gave the pancake a faint tang that plain milk never does. That pairing of buttermilk and baking soda is the engine of the whole recipe, and it explains why the American pancake tastes the way it does. The dish was never sweet by itself. The sweetness arrived on top, as syrup, butter and fruit, and the batter stayed plain, tangy and tender. Vermont and Quebec sugar makers gave it maple syrup, and the pairing has been inseparable in America ever since.

Italy had no reason to adopt it. The Italian morning meant a coffee at the bar and a cornetto or a few biscotti dunked in milk. The savoury, substantial breakfast belonged to northern Europe and the Anglosphere. What changed things was contact: American soldiers in 1943 and 1944, Hollywood films, returning emigrants, and later the hotel breakfast buffets of the 1990s. Italian children met the pancake on a screen and then asked for it at home, long before any restaurant served it.

The Italian home cook then did what Italians always do with a foreign dish. The batter was left alone, because chemistry does not negotiate, and the plate was rewritten. Maple syrup, expensive and hard to find in Italy for years, gave way to acacia and chestnut honey, to fruit, to hazelnut spread, and to a spoonful of mascarpone. Buttermilk, called latticello, is now sold in many Italian supermarkets, and where it is not, cooks sour their own milk with lemon. This is the pancake as an Italian table actually eats it, and this page does not pretend it is anything else.

Ingredients

For the dry mix

All purpose flour, 2 cups (250 g)
Granulated sugar, 2 tbsp (25 g)
Baking powder, 1 tsp (4 g)
Baking soda, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)

For the wet mix

Buttermilk, 1 3/4 cups (420 ml)
Large eggs, 2
Unsalted butter, melted and cooled, 4 tbsp (55 g)
Pure vanilla extract, 1 tsp (5 ml)

For the griddle

Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Neutral oil, 1 tsp (5 ml)

For serving

Fresh raspberries or blueberries, 1 1/2 cups (200 g)
Mascarpone, 1/2 cup (120 g)
Acacia or chestnut honey, 1/4 cup (85 g)
Unwaxed lemon zest, from 1/2 lemon

A note on the buttermilk. Use real cultured buttermilk, full fat if you can find it, and shake the carton before measuring because it separates. It is the only acid in the batter, so the amount matters: with too little, the soda is left unneutralised and tastes soapy. Good eggs and fresh butter matter more than any other choice here, since the batter has only a little sugar and the flavour comes almost entirely from dairy.

The flour should be plain all purpose, not bread flour, which has more protein and forms gluten faster. Spoon it into the cup and level it, or better, weigh it. Baking powder and soda should come from tins opened within the last six months, because both weaken in a humid kitchen and the pancake depends on them.

Preparation

Step 1. Heat the pan first.

Set a heavy skillet or steel griddle over medium low heat for a full 5 minutes, so it is evenly hot before any batter exists. A thin pan heated fast has hot spots and will scorch one edge of every pancake. Melt the butter for the batter and leave it to cool to body temperature. Set the oven to 200°F (95°C) for holding the finished pancakes.

Step 2. Whisk the dry mix.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl for a good 20 seconds, longer than feels necessary. This is the only vigorous whisking in the recipe. Baking soda is potent in tiny amounts, and a pocket of undispersed soda gives one pancake a soapy, metallic taste while its neighbour stays flat.

Step 3. Whisk the wet mix.

In a second bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla until the yolks are broken and the mixture is uniform. Then pour in the cooled butter in a thin stream while whisking. If the buttermilk is refrigerator cold the butter can set into small beads, so take the buttermilk and eggs out 20 minutes ahead. Keep this bowl beside the dry mix, not into it.

Step 4. Combine at the last moment.

Only when the pan is hot and the turner is in your hand, pour the wet mix into the dry all at once. Fold with a spatula, cutting down the middle and lifting the batter over itself, about 10 to 12 strokes. Stop while it still looks wrong: lumpy, uneven, with a few dry streaks. Move to the pan immediately, because the rise has already begun.

Step 5. Cook a test pancake.

Grease the pan with a thin film of butter and oil, and wipe away any excess with kitchen paper. Pour 1/4 cup (60 ml) of batter into the centre and let it find its own shape, without spreading it. Watch the bubbles and the rim. When it is done, cut it open: the centre should be set, soft and open, with no wet streak.

Step 6. Flip once.

When bubbles have opened across the whole surface and the rim has lost its wet shine, slide the turner fully underneath and turn the pancake in one short, confident movement. Cook 60 to 90 seconds more, until the second side is pale gold. Never press the pancake down, because you would be crushing the crumb the leavening built.

Step 7. Cook the batch.

Cook two or three at a time, leaving room to get the turner under each one. Lower the heat a notch if the first side colours in under 2 minutes. Wipe the pan with paper between rounds to remove burnt milk solids, and re butter lightly. Pour each new round the moment its place clears, and use the same ladle every time, so every pancake is the same size and finishes together.

Step 8. Hold briefly, then serve at once.

Pancakes are best within a minute of leaving the pan. To hold them, set them in a single loose layer on a rack over a sheet pan in the 200°F (95°C) oven for no more than 15 minutes, uncovered. Never stack them and never cover them with foil, because trapped steam softens the crust and compresses the crumb.

Plating

Serve three pancakes per plate, not five. The tall stack is a photograph rather than a way of eating: by the fourth pancake the ones underneath have steamed each other soft and the butter has pooled at the bottom. Offset the pancakes slightly so the golden faces show from the side, and use a plate that is warm, not hot.

Set a spoonful of mascarpone loosened with a teaspoon of milk on top, while the pancakes are hot enough to soften it but not melt it into a puddle. Scatter the berries around and over, keeping a few whole so there is something to bite. Add the honey last, over the top pancake only, and let it find its own way down. Finish with lemon zest, which brightens the butter and cuts the sweetness of the honey. Bring the plates to the table straight away, because a pancake begins to lose its lift within minutes.

Professional Technique

The whole recipe rests on one chemical event, and its timing controls everything. Buttermilk is acidic and baking soda is a base. Kept apart, in separate bowls, they do nothing. The moment they meet, the acid and the soda produce carbon dioxide, and that gas is what lifts the pancake. The reaction begins on contact, so the wet mix goes into the dry mix last, and the batter goes into the pan within minutes. Waiting means cooking a batter whose gas has already escaped into the air.

This is also why the lumps stay. A lumpy batter is proof that it was barely worked. Flour forms gluten the moment it meets liquid, and stirring speeds it up. Gluten in a pancake is not structure but elasticity, and an overmixed batter cooks into something chewy and rubbery instead of tender. Ten to twelve folds are enough. The small lumps hydrate on the griddle and vanish into the crumb, and a smooth batter would only be a worked batter.

Read the pan by the bubbles, not the clock. On a correctly heated pan the batter sets slowly, and bubbles rise, open and stay open across the whole surface, not just in the middle. The rim turns from glossy to matte. That is the moment to flip, usually near 2 minutes. If bubbles appear within seconds and the underside is dark, the pan is too hot. If nothing opens after 3 minutes, it is too cool. Flip once.

Texture and Moisture Control

A pancake leaves the pan full of steam, with a dry browned face and a wet interior. Stack two and the steam from the lower one condenses against the upper one, so both faces turn damp within ninety seconds. That is why they rest in a single layer, uncovered, and why a hot plate is a mistake, since it keeps cooking the bottom of the stack.

Fat placement decides the surface. A thin film of butter conducts heat from the metal into the batter and browns it evenly. A pool of butter makes the pancake float and fry, leaving a blistered, greasy face and a pale ring where the fat gathered. Wipe the pan nearly dry between batches, which also clears burnt milk solids that would speckle the next round.

Tenderness comes from the butter and eggs, which shorten the crumb, and from the sugar, which holds moisture and lends colour. Only 2 tablespoons (25 g) go into the whole batch, because the toppings supply the rest of the sweetness. Judge doneness by touch. Press the centre lightly: it should sink and spring back fully. If the dent stays, the middle is raw and needs another 20 seconds.

Professional Mise en Place

Pancakes are cooked to order and eaten at once, so preparation removes every decision from the griddle. Everything except the batter can be ready the night before, and the batter itself takes four minutes.

Equipment and tools

Heavy skillet or steel griddle, thick based, and a wide thin turner
Two mixing bowls and a flexible spatula
1/4 cup (60 ml) ladle, used as the portioning tool for every pancake
Rack set over a sheet pan, for holding
Kitchen scale, and kitchen paper for wiping the pan

Prepared ahead

Dry mix whisked and sealed in a jar, up to 1 week ahead
Buttermilk and eggs out of the refrigerator 20 minutes early
Butter melted and left to cool while you weigh the rest
Berries washed and dried, mascarpone loosened and kept cold, up to 1 day ahead

Service setup

Oven at 200°F (95°C) with the rack already inside
Butter in a small dish with a brush or folded paper beside the pan
Honey in a pouring jug, lemon zest ready
Plates warm, never hot
Wet and dry mixes side by side, unmixed until the pan is ready

Chef Tips

Test your baking powder in hot water before starting. If it does not fizz at once, it is dead, and flat pancakes will be blamed on the mixing instead of on the tin that actually caused them.

No buttermilk in the house? Stir 2 tablespoons of lemon juice into 1 3/4 cups (420 ml) of whole milk and wait 5 minutes. It gives the soda the acid it needs, though the flavour is a little thinner than the real thing.

Weigh the flour. Scooped flour can weigh fifteen percent more than spooned and levelled flour, and that is the difference between a batter that ribbons off the spoon and one that sits in a lump and cooks dry.

Use the same ladle every time and keep the pancakes the same size. Equal pancakes cook in equal time, which lets you stop testing after the first one and start trusting the bubbles instead of the clock, which is the whole skill of the griddle.

Common Mistakes

Whisking until smooth. This is the crespelle reflex, and it develops gluten and gives a flat, rubbery disc. Fold briefly and keep the lumps.

Letting the batter stand. The gas is released on contact, so a batter left for half an hour has little lift left. Mix, then cook straight away.

Cooking on high heat. The outside darkens before the centre sets, leaving a dark pancake that is raw inside. Use medium low and a preheated pan.

Pressing after the flip. It crushes the open crumb the leavening built, and the crumb never recovers. Flip once and leave it alone.

Stacking straight from the pan. Trapped steam softens the browned faces within minutes. Hold pancakes in a single layer on a rack.

Using bread flour. Its higher protein forms gluten faster and gives a chewy pancake. Choose plain all purpose flour.

Too much butter in the pan. A pool of fat fries the pancake and gives a blistered, greasy face. Grease, then wipe almost all of it away.

Wine Pairing

This is breakfast, so the question is really about a late weekend brunch. The plate is buttery and gently sweet, with fresh acidic fruit and dairy. That points at dry wines with high acidity, low alcohol and almost no tannin. Anything heavy or oaked will bury it before the second pancake, and tannin against mascarpone turns chalky.

Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG: The easy first choice. A Brut bottling brings green apple and pear with a firm acid line, and its fine persistent bubbles scrub the butterfat off the palate between bites. At around 11 percent alcohol it belongs at a morning table, and the light body never overwhelms the crumb.

Franciacorta DOCG: A Metodo Classico with brioche and almond notes that echo the browned butter and vanilla in the batter. The acidity cuts cleanly through mascarpone, and the creamy mousse from long ageing on the lees matches the tender centre. Choose it when the plate is rich with dairy and honey.

Trento DOC: Mountain grown Chardonnay gives crisp citrus, a saline edge and a tight, fine bead. It lifts the honey and the lemon zest, and it refreshes the mouth after each bite of berry and cream, so the last pancake tastes as lively as the first. It is the leanest of the sparkling wines here, and the best with sharp fruit.

Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: Pale, dry and lightly sparkling, with wild strawberry and raspberry fruit and almost no tannin. It meets the fresh berries directly instead of contrasting with them, and its high acidity keeps the butter and cream feeling light. Serve it cold, in a wide glass.

Storage & Reheating

Cool the cooked pancakes completely on a rack, then refrigerate them in an airtight container with a square of parchment between each one, for up to 2 days. Sealing them warm traps steam and gives damp pancakes the next morning. Do not store the batter, because its leavening is spent within the hour, and a refrigerated batter cooks up flat and dense.

They freeze well, which is the better option beyond a day. Freeze them in a single layer on a tray, then bag them with parchment for up to 2 months. Reheat from frozen without thawing in a dry skillet over low heat, 60 seconds a side, or in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 to 7 minutes, in one layer and uncovered. A toaster on a low setting also works. Avoid the microwave, which turns them gummy.