Fluffy Golden Diner Pancakes Recipe
Recipe adapted from Sam Yoo from Golden Diner via the NY Times
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour waiting
Cooking time: 16 minutes
Makes 6 thick pancakes
Ingredients Needed
- 4.5 teaspoons/14g instant dried yeast
- 520g/18ozs plain all purpose flour, divided in two
- 600ml/21flozs buttermilk
- 4 tablespoons/60g/2oz caster or superfine sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons bicarb
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs, large, room temperature
- 120ml/4flozs oil
For Honey Butter Sauce
- 226g/2 sticks butter, very soft
- 6 tablespoons/120g/4ozs honey
- 4 tablespoons/80g/2.8flozs maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
Berry Sauce
- 400g/14ozs mixed berries, fresh or frozen
- 70g/2.5ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons cornflour/fine cornstarch
To serve
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest for each pancake
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Whisk together the yeast and half of the flour. Heat buttermilk to 37C/98.6F and whisk into the flour mixture. Cover and allow to sit for 1 hour. It will become bubbly.
Step 2 - While it is rising make the honey butter sauce. Add the butter, honey, maple syrup, soy sauce and salt together into a large bowl and whisk until smooth. If the mixture doesn't emulsify together, heat the butter gently on 10% power in the microwave in 20 second increments until it becomes soft enough to whisk together easily. Set aside at room temperature.
Step 3 - Then make the berry sauce. Mix the berries, sugar and cornstarch together and then add to a small saucepan on medium heat (you don't need to add water). Stir and simmer gently for a couple of minutes until a sauce is formed and then remove from heat.
Step 4 - Once the batter has had its time, mix in the remaining half of the flour, sugar, bicarb and salt with a spatula. Whisk the eggs with the oil and add this in with the spatula, mixing until just combined. Little lumps like above are fine.
Step 5 a- Preheat your oven to 230C/428F fan forced. Place your oven proof non stick frying pan in the oven for 5 minutes to make sure that it is hot. (Caution: be careful when using a hot pan and make sure to wrap handle in a tea towel to avoid accidentally picking up the handle with your hands!). Pour a sixth of the batter into the hot pan and bake for 9 minutes until golden on top. Flip upside down and place on a plate.
Step 5b - Stovetop directions: Place pan to heat on medium high then reduce heat to low. Place batter in the pan and cook pancake for 3 minutes on one side until bubbles appear on the top, then gently lift and flip it over the other side and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.
Step 6 - Place two pancakes on a plate. Shape quenelles using two tablespoons using the soft butter and then melt the rest of the butter in a small saucepan on low heat to form a sauce (whisk together before serving). Drench the pancakes with the butter sauce and add the quenelle of butter and berry compote on the side or on top.
Note: these pancakes are thick so I usually serve them as single pancakes as they are so filling!
Personal Note
Although the recipe was shared on the NYTimes website, I found that getting it to be just right proved a bit of a mystery and I wondered if they had given the full recipe. I made four batches of these pancakes just to get them juust right because I was determined to solve the mystery of these pancakes and after a lot of testing and research I think this is it!
We recently had another mystery that had us baffled. During our recent holiday we visited a few countries. First up was Singapore to see my family and then we were flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia for a Mekong Cruise that would finish in Vietnam. On our second night in Singapore we were sitting at a restaurant. Towards the end of our meal they sat a solo diner next to us. She was also having the degustation - sometimes you can't help but overhear conversations between her and wait staff and apparently she was taking herself out for a last meal before flying out the next morning. We exchanged pleasantries but we were about to leave so we were already packing up. "She'll be there til after midnight," Mr NQN whispered as we left at 10:30pm while her second course was being delivered.
The next day we were flying out to Siem Reap early in the morning and we saw her at the airport. All I could think was that the poor thing mustn't have had a lot of sleep as it was such an early flight.
Once we arrived in Siem Reap we relaxed and stayed at our hotel. Then it was time to go to the bar for a drink and then dinner. I took a seat at the bar and looked to my left. "That's the lady next to us last night!" I whispered to Mr NQN. "She's got to be going on the cruise," he said. He was determined to find out what was going on and to solve the mystery of why she kept popping up in the same place.
Mr NQN asked her if she was at the Raffles Singapore the night before and after a few seconds she remembered us. He asked if she was heading on the cruise too. It turned out that she wasn't, she just happened to be on a holiday of the same spots and we happened to see her three times! We wished her a nice holiday but honestly what a coincidence!
So tell me Dear Reader, would you have wanted to know what was going on? Do things like this ever happen to you?