The pancake batter is ready in the mixing bowl in 30 seconds, and then it needs to do absolutely nothing for half an hour. Sounds odd, but that is the whole trick. We have been making pancakes regularly for years, and the difference between “straight into the pan” and “rested for 30 minutes” is so clear that we never skip the resting time now.
With 300 g of flour, 500 g of milk and 5 eggs we get 10 thin pancakes that stay pliable and do not tear when you flip them. Below you will find four recipes: the basic batter, a sweet filling, rhubarb and apple. We can mix the basic batter in our sleep by now.
Thermomix® Pancakes with Mascarpone Nougat Filling
Ingredients 0 / 7 ✓
- 250 g Mascarpone
- 200 g hazelnut nougat cream
- 100 g almonds
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 50 g double cream
- 20 g sugar
- 10 pancakes
Instructions 0 / 2
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1
Add the Mascarpone, hazelnut nougat cream and almonds to the mixing bowl and mix for 20 seconds / speed 4. Spread the mixture over the pancakes and roll them up.
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2
Add the chocolate in pieces to the mixing bowl and chop for 5 seconds / speed 8. Add the double cream and sugar to the mixing bowl, heat for 5 minutes / 70°C / speed 2 and drizzle over the pancakes to serve.
Nutrition per serving
Why 30 minutes of resting time makes all the difference
Pancake batter without resting time produces tough, crumbly pancakes. With resting time it becomes smooth and thin. All that separates the two is 30 minutes, nothing more.
The reason is flour mechanics. When the flour first comes into contact with the milk and egg, it has not yet absorbed the liquid. The starch granules need time to swell. At the same time, gluten forms during mixing and contracts like a rubber band. It is precisely this tense gluten that makes pancakes tough.
30 minutes of rest solves both problems at once. The starch absorbs the full amount of liquid and the batter becomes homogeneous. The gluten relaxes, and the pancakes turn out thin, soft and no longer tear when you flip them. We simply leave the mixing bowl on the worktop and cover it with the lid. No extra bowl to wash, no transferring.
The Thermomix® handles the part that is genuinely tedious by hand before that: blend 300 g of flour, 500 g of milk and a pinch of salt for 20 seconds at speed 4, then add 5 eggs and blend for another 10 seconds at speed 5. Lump-free, without any whisk acrobatics. Anyone who has tried this with cold milk and a bowl knows those little flour pockets around the edges. In the mixing bowl they simply do not happen.
The ingredients and why the ratio works
Pancakes are a 4-ingredient recipe: flour, milk, eggs, salt. Everything else is ratio. For 300 g of flour we use 500 g of milk and 5 eggs. More milk makes the batter too thin and the pancakes tear, less milk makes them thick and dense. Five eggs give the batter enough structure to flip, without it tasting like an omelette.
For the flour we use Type 405 or Type 550. Wholemeal flour works too, but add an extra 50 g of milk, otherwise the wholemeal absorbs too much. The milk can happily be at room temperature, then it combines with the flour more quickly. Straight from the fridge is also fine, the Thermomix® evens it out during mixing.
For the sweet version we add 30 g of sugar directly to the flour. For savoury pancakes we leave out the sugar and fill them afterwards with cream cheese, ham, smoked salmon or spinach. The basic batter stays the same.
Where pancakes go tough or tear
Batter goes straight into the pan after mixing
This is the main reason for tough pancakes. Without 30 minutes of resting time the flour has not absorbed the milk and the gluten is still tense. The result is rubbery rather than tender. Our solution: After mixing, simply leave the mixing bowl on the worktop for 30 minutes. That is the most important half hour of the recipe.
Pancakes tear when flipped
If the batter falls apart when you flip it, there is either not enough binding or not enough fat. Too few eggs make the batter unstable, and without properly hot fat the pancake sticks to the bottom. Our solution: Stick with the ratio of 300 g of flour to 5 eggs, and only grease the pan once it is hot. We use clarified butter or rapeseed oil, both handle medium heat better than butter.
Pancakes go black or spotty
Butter looks lovely in the pan but burns at medium heat. Black spots on pancakes usually come from burnt milk solids in the butter. Our solution: We use clarified butter for flavour or neutral rapeseed oil when we are in a hurry. Keep the heat at medium, no higher than that.
Batter too thick or too thin
Sometimes the flour absorbs more liquid than expected, especially with wholemeal flour. Sometimes the eggs are extra large and the batter becomes too thin. Our solution: If the batter is too thick, add 30 g of milk and mix for 5 seconds at speed 3. If it is too thin, add 20 g of flour and treat it the same way.
Sweet with cinnamon sugar, savoury with spinach
The basic batter works in any direction, and we vary it depending on what we fancy and what is in the fridge.
- Classic sweet: Add 30 g of sugar to the flour, then dust the finished pancakes with cinnamon sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Also works well with apple sauce or jam.
- Sparkling water version: Replace 100 g of the milk with sparkling mineral water and add the water only after the resting time, then mix for 5 seconds at speed 3. This makes the pancakes extra light.
- Apple in the batter: Slice 2 Boskop apples thinly, lay them in the pan and pour the batter over them. Whip the egg whites separately until stiff and fold them in at the end, otherwise the apple slices will not support the batter.
- Savoury with smoked salmon: Leave out the sugar, spread the finished pancake with cream cheese, add smoked salmon and dill, roll up and cut into pieces.
- Spinach and cream cheese: Again without sugar, spread with cream cheese, top with spinach and a little grated Parmesan, roll up like a wrap.
- Oven pancake for a crowd: Preheat the oven with a baking tray to 200°C, grease the tray with butter, pour in the batter and bake for 10 minutes. Saves standing at the hob when the whole family is hungry.
If the batter turns out too thick, we tear the pancake up, dust it with icing sugar and serve it with a little apple sauce. That brings us to an improvised Kaiserschmarrn, which is incidentally one of the best baking-accident recipes there is.
Pancake relatives made with the Thermomix®
Once you start making pancakes, you will find a few close relatives right alongside them in the Thermomix®. For a wafer-thin version with a French tradition there is a recipe for crepes made in the Thermomix®, noticeably thinner than our pancakes but larger. For the thick, fluffy breakfast version, buttermilk pancakes are worth trying, as they become airy through buttermilk and baking powder rather than whipped egg whites.
If any batter is left over after making pancakes, it goes straight into pancake soup: slice into fine strips and serve in hot broth. A classic way to use up leftovers. If you prefer something hearty, use the batter for a minced meat and pancake bake, where the pancakes are layered with minced meat and cheese and baked.
1 day in the fridge, frozen for 1 month
Freshly cooked pancakes keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2 days. To keep them warm straight after cooking we put them in the oven at 50°C fan on a baking tray lined with baking paper, until all of them are done and the family sits down to eat.
Freezing works very well. We stack the cooled pancakes with baking paper between each layer and pack them into a freezer bag. They keep for about a month without sticking together. To defrost, put them in a non-stick pan over medium heat, about a minute per side, until they are warm and pliable again. The microwave works too, but they will come out a little softer.
We do not leave raw batter overnight in the fridge. After 8 hours of chilling it loses its springiness, and the pancakes come out flatter and slightly tough. Better to mix it fresh, leave it to rest for 30 minutes and cook straight away.
Our four pancake recipes
We start with the basic batter. The other three recipes are the variations we make most often.
Pan, heat, the right moment to flip
We put the non-stick pan on level 6 of 9, so just above medium heat. Test: a drop of water must sizzle and evaporate immediately in the pan, then it is hot enough. Only then do we add half a teaspoon of clarified butter and spread it thinly across the bottom with kitchen paper. One ladle of batter into the centre, tilt the pan in a circular motion straight away until the batter reaches the edges. If you spread it with the ladle you get stripy pancakes. After about a minute the edge visibly lifts from the pan and the surface on top loses its shine. That is the moment to flip. The second side only needs 30 to 40 seconds.
More cakes and tarts made with the Thermomix® can be found in our cake collection.
Goes well with: apple sauce, strawberry jam and vanilla sauce.
You might also like: Deutschland glass dessert with the Thermomix®.
Basic pancake recipe
Pancakes with sweet filling
Rhubarb pancakes
A summer recipe for rhubarb season. We serve the rhubarb pancakes with homemade buttermilk lemon ice cream, which gives a lovely balance of sharp and sweet.
Apple pancakes with Boskop
When grandma’s apple tree drops its Boskop apples in late summer, they become apple pancakes. The pancakes need to be a little thicker here, otherwise the apple slices will not hold. The trick: whip the egg whites separately until stiff and fold them in at the end, then they become fluffy enough for the amount of apple.
If you are still in the mood for something sweet: our Thermomix® rice pudding is also ready in 30 minutes, and the banana caramel layered dessert only takes a few minutes and goes well with leftover pancakes.
