Easy Homemade Fluffy Pancakes

Why buy the mix when you can easily make your pancakes to look like these? Tried and tested deliciousness – Easy Homemade Fluffy Pancakes!

Fluffy Pancakes


Who doesn’t like pancakes or, shall I say hotcakes, as we call them in the Philippines? Making these simple pancakes continue to bring me lovely memories of my childhood on our little island, Marinduque.

As I have said in my previous post, when we were growing up we didn’t have a consistent supply of electricity in our town which was the main reason why people never really had electric ovens and mostly relied on charcoal (out of wood or coconut) to cook our food.

Thankfully, because pancakes are generally cooked on a stovetop, we still got the chance to have them typically on Saturdays for a wonderful weekend breakfast treat.

Fluffy Pancakes

Obviously, we don’t have maple syrup in Asia so to sweeten our pancakes – we either use honey or in my cousins’ house –  we use sugar (brown or white) with evaporated milk. Delicious!

Fortunately for me, I always seem to know when they are making pancakes ’cause I’m always at their house when they make it. Our houses are so close to each other so perhaps the sweet-smelling aroma of the pancake batter makes me rush to their place on Saturdays! 🙂

Truth is, in the Philippines, you don’t need any formal invitation to go to someone’s house. It’s a cultural thing, a socially accepted norm, especially if it’s your relatives’ house. People come and go unannounced. While this may be unnerving or shocking to some – like akin to an invasion of privacy, it is not so in the Philippines or perhaps in other parts of Asia.

It’s to be understood in the context of what Filipino hospitality is all about. When guests arrive at your house, although unannounced, you are expected to offer them something to eat. While it sounds terrible – it really is not – these visitors don’t really expect to be served like Kings and Queens. Often the purpose is just to visit and have a chat.

No need to serve them anything elaborate. More often than not a quick trip to a Sari-sari Store (Filipino style convenience store – see photo below) is all that’s needed. They’d be happy with a bottle of Coke and skyflakes (Filipino Crackers).

They come to visit and chat, see how you are doing and as a courtesy to their visit – you need to at least offer something. In the end, it’s just wonderful to have an informal get together with family and friends unhampered by any rigid rules.

Anyway, that’s a little snippet of our culture which I truly appreciate having been the beneficiary many a time of such warm hospitality. In case you are wondering, today I am still very good friends with my cousins despite my constant visits and many mealtimes shared with them! I love them and they love me back! 🙂

Anyway, we digress, let’s go back now to our simple evaporated milk and sugar sweetener. It may sound weird and it’s not exactly a perfect replacement for sweet syrup but to this day – I still use this when I eat my pancakes. I sprinkle sugar on top of the pancakes and then drown them in evaporated milk. I do it to bring fond memories of laughter around the table while my cousins and I try to outdo each other on who can eat the most pancakes. It’s so simple too yet I think it works really well. My kids love it too but they are quite easy to please!

Here’s a simple recipe for homemade pancakes. This is just a very basic batter but you can add fruits or sweet spices or whatever suits your fancy. After trying this, I have never bought any mixes anymore. It’s just simple and at least you know what’s going in your pancakes!  Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.:-)

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INGREDIENTS YOU NEED TO MAKE THE BEST FLUFFY PANCAKES! 

NOTE: For the full recipe with instructions and for printing, see the recipe card below. Just scroll down.

All-purpose flour
Sugar (white sugar)
Baking powder
Salt
Milk (or buttermilk)
Egg
Unsalted butter, preferred

Make sure to prepare your griddle or frying pan. Photos below show what the pancakes look like after they’ve been placed in the preheated pan.

Just cook until bubbly approximately – 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.

Simply, flip and brown the other side. Just cook until it’s fully set, approximately 1-2 minutes. Aren’t they lovely?Looks so fluffy, right?

Spread some butter on the pancakes and serve with warm maple syrup or your preferred sweetener (or – sprinkle brown sugar on top and for syrup – evaporated milk!). 

Fluffy pancakes

Definitely, kid-approved!

Easy Homemade Fluffy Pancakes

Manila Spoon
Why buy the mix when you can easily make your pancakes to look like these? Tried and tested deliciousness – Easy Homemade Fluffy Pancakes!
4.77 from 17 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 6

Ingredients
 

  • cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • cups milk (less if you want thicker pancakes)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Instructions
 

  • Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center, place the egg in, then pour in the milk and the melted butter. With a whisk, mix until the batter is free from big lumps or until relatively smooth.
  • Heat a griddle or frying pan (some pans need to be greased a bit beforehand) over medium high heat. (I use a non-stick griddle so there’s no need to grease it all). When the pan or griddle is hot enough,  scoop the batter onto the griddle/pan using a small measuring cup (1/4-1/3 cup size). Cook until bubbly approximately – 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.
  • Flip and brown the other side. Just cook until it’s fully set, approximately 1-2 minutes.
  • Spread some butter on the pancakes and serve with warm maple syrup or your preferred sweetener (or – sprinkle brown sugar on top and for syrup – evaporated milk!)

Notes

TIPS & TRICKS
You may substitute regular milk with buttermilk as others have suggested.
Keyword best fluffy pancakes, best pancakes ever, best recipe for pancakes, easy homemade fluffy pancakes, fluffy pancakes recipe from scratch, no mix pancakes, secret to fluffy pancakes
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you like a more sophisticated pancake for the adult taste, why not add some berries and nuts into the mix – like this blueberry and walnut combo. The recipe link is here for the Fluffy Pancakes with Blueberries and Walnuts.

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Fluffy Pancakes

Last updated on February 10th, 2024 at 07:24 am

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38 Comments

  1. November 21, 2012 / 12:59 pm

    A lovely post Abby! You always make me want to immediately book a flight to Manila so I can start exploring those Filipino islands.
    And using coconut charcoal – oh my…. I wonder if i can find any of that here in Toronto….

    • November 22, 2012 / 5:00 am

      Hi Jen! Coconut charcoal is huge in my island. They use coconut husks so nothing is wasted and it's pretty good to use! Hope someday you can explore some of the 7,100 islands of the Philippines! 🙂

  2. November 21, 2012 / 8:14 pm

    YUMMY! Yes, gotta love the two thumbs up seal of approval!!! 🙂

    • November 22, 2012 / 5:01 am

      Hi Sessy! Glad you stopped by and thanks for joining us here! Welcome and hope you find the site helpful!

  3. Anonymous
    December 29, 2012 / 4:43 pm

    Made these today for my grandkids, a big hit!! Really good!! I will be making these again but I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. Sherry Baird

    • December 30, 2012 / 3:42 am

      Thanks for the feedback, Sherry! I should try buttermilk next time. So glad that you and grandkids loved them! 🙂

  4. February 1, 2013 / 4:52 am

    Thanks for this yummy Fluffy Pancakes !! If you use Buttermilk, the pancake will be white in color if I'm not wrong. I used to add in 1 teasp of vinegar to the batter and I got white pancake instead of yellow color pancake.
    I got the Caramel sauce from a Taiwan chef and I would like to share it with you and your fans.

    1 kg sugar, 2 1/2 cup cold water.

    1. Pour 1/3 of the sugar and 1/4 cup cold water and let sugar completely wet, and then on fire and cook until sugar melt . Shake the pot to let the sugar color uniform and golden brown. ( to make caramel )
    2. Then turn off the fire and pour in 2 ¼ cups cold water and the rest of the sugar, and then on a low fire & boil for 25-30 minutes, until the sugar is completely melted, remove from heat, let it cool. Pour caramel sauce into a bottle to keep. It can serve as a drink or add to any pancakes, deep fried dessert and ice cream. This sauce is very common is Taiwan. They even pour on top of the Ice Kacang / Hallo hallo !!

    • February 2, 2013 / 1:31 am

      Sounds like a great recipe for Caramel Sauce, Mrs. Lee. I have to try this. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your recipe.

  5. February 1, 2013 / 4:59 am

    I love shortcut !! So whenever I make batter like pancake, I put in the liquid ingredients — milk, egg melted butter, first into the blender, then the dry ingredients and blend. In seconds, the batter is ready. I will sift it when I make Roti Jala and let it stand 10-20 mins before use — to let the batter rest so that the flour will work better in the batter !!

    • February 3, 2013 / 3:31 pm

      Very interesting. I have to look up and find what Roti Jala is. Thanks for the tip.

  6. June 22, 2013 / 12:43 pm

    Thank you for sharing, not only this pancake recipe, but also a piece of our cultural background. You see, I am metiza. My father is Filipino & mother is caucasion. My father was in the military (Navy) & was out to sea a lot. He taught her how to cook & we grew up on Filipino food. We learned that family and respect for your elders is very important, but there were some things that went unsaid (like the going to the neighbors house freely without an in invite) that I learned from you today…i love your posts on Facebook. Thanks again for sharing!

    • August 8, 2013 / 7:11 am

      Wow, thanks for letting me know about your background Susan. Glad you grew up enjoying Filipino food!

  7. May 15, 2014 / 7:53 am

    This is cute. While reading, my imagination was playing around how my childhood was. A simple story that we Filipinos can really relate, especially 'probinsyano' c",). However, I am more interested on the PANCAKE c",) I used to cook pancakes 6yrs ago as an income generating business in our lil community. And about to do it again this year 🙂 unfortunately, cannot find a good quality non-stick griddle here in Philippines… Currently, still searching where to buy Black & Decker Griddle.

    • May 27, 2014 / 11:25 pm

      Oh I wish I can be helpful Mykhel but I don't know where to point you to unless you wish to buy it online. Thanks for stopping by.

    • March 10, 2016 / 12:29 am

      Hi Ms Abby c",)

      Thank you for your kind reply. sorry if I just noticed it now medjo busy sa pancake :D.
      I found shops already selling that non-stick griddle 🙂

      thank you for this blog, by the way. I received a message the other day mentioning about what I shared here. It's good to know that we inspired someone from our works.

      Cheers!

  8. February 17, 2015 / 3:33 pm

    What an interesting post. The closest I've ever come to Filapeno (sp – sorry) food is a pig roast/party that a friend of my step moms from church threw once. Wow – delicious! I was like 12-13 and still remember the taste vividly. 🙂

    When I was growing up we often did strawberry jam on our pancakes/French toast. I still like it that way best.

    • February 18, 2015 / 1:11 pm

      Glad you have fond memories of our lechon! I love that and miss eating it a lot! Happy you stopped by Tina! 🙂

  9. Ms.Lydia
    August 4, 2015 / 5:04 am

    Best recipe I've ever used!

  10. November 23, 2015 / 3:09 am

    I should've try this…… 🙂
    i like fluffy foods, specially itong pancake na to….. i'm sure my baby boy would love this…… thanks for sharing your recipe! Godbless

  11. January 21, 2016 / 5:26 pm

    Just wanted to let you that I swear by this pancake recipe. I grew up with a slightly different one and it was good but not as good as this one. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and never looked back! haha

    • January 21, 2016 / 5:28 pm

      Thanks Hannah! You totally made my day and glad you enjoyed this! It's our favorite recipe for sure!

  12. February 20, 2017 / 11:48 pm

    5 stars
    Made these this weekend for my grandchildren only I added lemon juice to the milk to make buttermilk and added an extra egg. They were so light and fluffy and delicious. I stuck this recipe to my fridge so it is always handy. Give it a 5 star.

    • February 21, 2017 / 2:08 pm

      Oh yum!! I need to try this too Donna! Thank you so much for letting us know and so glad you all enjoyed this!

  13. Anonymous
    July 27, 2017 / 3:56 pm

    They look good. Buy Grade B maple syrup if you can find it. The difference is like night and day.

    Vicky

  14. Ashley F.
    February 22, 2021 / 6:08 pm

    5 stars
    We love making pancakes on the weekends and these are our go-to pancakes! Perfect for getting the kids into the kitchen!

  15. Tara
    February 22, 2021 / 6:34 pm

    5 stars
    What a perfect start to the day! I love the fluffy texture of these pancakes and how easily they come together. Yum!

  16. Sara Welch
    February 22, 2021 / 6:41 pm

    5 stars
    Enjoyed these for breakfast today and they did not disappoint! Such a great way to start my day; light, fluffy and delicious!

  17. Irina
    February 22, 2021 / 7:43 pm

    5 stars
    I am a crepe person, but your fluffy pancakes look so amazingly delicious that I will give them a try! I just hope to get the same result as yours. 🙂

  18. Mirlene
    February 22, 2021 / 8:11 pm

    5 stars
    Ooohhh I love a good fluffy pancake recipe. Definitely making these over the weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!

  19. Jovita
    February 24, 2021 / 4:21 pm

    5 stars
    Wow, these pancakes look super fluffy! My kids will definitely love these. Thank you for the recipe!

  20. Ashley
    February 24, 2021 / 4:29 pm

    5 stars
    Yum! I love pancakes! This recipe was exactly what I remember having as a child!

  21. Sara Welch
    February 24, 2021 / 4:55 pm

    5 stars
    Made these for breakfast this morning and started my day off right! These were perfectly light and fluffy and hands-down delicious!

  22. Alison
    February 24, 2021 / 5:11 pm

    5 stars
    These pancakes turned out so thick and fluffy! Delicious!

  23. rika
    February 24, 2021 / 7:21 pm

    5 stars
    These homemade pancakes look so fluffy and yummy! These would make a nice brunch meal!

  24. Michelle
    May 29, 2023 / 2:03 pm

    5 stars
    Made them as soon as I came across the recipe this morning. I had buttermilk in the fridge, so I used that. Light, and fluffy, yes they were. Another great recipe from you, Manila Spoon. I told my husband that those great strawberry white chocolate muffins I make for you are a Manila Spoon recipe, so I knew this would be equally as good as soon as i saw it. Absolutely were!

    • abigail
      Author
      May 30, 2023 / 9:48 pm

      Yay! So glad you enjoyed the recipes! Thanks for letting us know.

  25. February 2, 2024 / 12:13 pm

    Delicious!!! My husband and kids request for these every day!!! Thank you for sharing the Recipe. No Need to order from restaurants.

    • abigail
      Author
      February 2, 2024 / 1:33 pm

      So glad you loved the pancakes! They’re truly the best!

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