Making the Perfect Pancake

Slightly lumpy batter makes light
and tender pancakes.

1. Begin by combining all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stirring them together until they're well combined. Beat the whole eggs or egg yolks (if they're included) in another mixing bowl, one that's large enough to also hold the liquid ingredients.

2. Stir the liquid ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients. To make your pancakes light and tender, stir the batter just until the ingredients are combined but the mixture is still slightly lumpy. Any small lumps left in the batter will cook out on the griddle -- and overmixing destroys the air bubbles in the batter, resulting in heavy, tough pancakes.