Don’t Cook Pancakes in an Instant Pot
Pancakes are quite simple to prepare. However, like most breakfast foods, they require a certain amount of vigorous preparation in the form of pouring, turning, and general vigilance. I’m pretty lazy, especially in the morning, so I loved the idea of a giant, fluffy, bed-ready Instant Pot pancake.
Maybe I’m attracted to these guys, but every male partner I’ve ever had has been obsessed with pancakes. (Well, at least those who sat out long enough to deserve lazy Sunday morning breakfasts.) I cook them because I’m a kind and helpful partner, but I hoped the Instant Pot would make this special labor of love less time consuming. According to the blogs, all you have to do is mix the dough, pour it into the (heavily greased) liner, and cook at low pressure for just under an hour. Now “just under an hour” is a long time to wait for pancakes, but after looking at several different recipes, I started having grandiose visions of how to make a giant pancake, put a pan of bacon in the oven and crawl. back to bed for another 45 minutes until breakfast was ready. However, this should not have happened.
First, the number of recipes you can use is very limited. I found a few Instant Pot pancake recipes – which I started calling “iPancakes” in my head – but wanted to see if the appliance could produce a decent breakfast carbohydrate from the mix for the perfect lazy morning. I took a packet of Bob’s Red Mill Buttermilk Pancake Mix, added the required egg, milk and butter, and poured the dough into my insert for instant cooking. Not wanting to use cooking spray – I don’t like the taste of it – I applied a very large amount of oil to the sides and bottom. I then cooked it at low pressure for 50 minutes.
It was a real disaster. The pancake was adhered to the bottom of the insert, and the top was wet and sticky. Thinking that at least part of the problem was that I was using butter and not the recommended canola spray, I repeated the process one more time, this time with a spray.
That sucks too. By that time, it was pretty clear to me that not any pancake dough can be added to the famous pressure cooker, so I decided to try this recipe , which was specially developed for this appliance. After another hour of waiting for another pancake to cook, I was able to pull this out of the insert:
Obviously it was much better than our previous attempts and this damn definitely looked tempting. Before we get down to tasting, it’s worth noting that these pancakes don’t have to look exactly like American pancakes. The author of this recipe notes that “they are not only very thick and fluffy, but also a little more chewy and sweet.” Even so, I didn’t find them very enjoyable.
To begin with, although it did have a certain height, this pancake was not what I would call “fluffy”. It was tight, heavy, and slightly sticky on the teeth, with a thick crispy crust at the top (which I suppose was actually on the bottom before I pulled it out of the liner) and a pale, sticky bottom.
It was not inedible, especially when drowned in butter and syrup, but any true connoisseur of pancakes would categorically reject it. Good pancakes are all about texture. They should be fluffy and tender on the inside, with a golden crust that gives only slight resistance when you bite into them. Instant Pot pancakes are different. I mean, if you like heavy gummy pancakes this might be something you like, but you’ll also have to wait an hour, so just keep that in mind.