How to Make Chef John's Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

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Learn how to make Chef John’s delicious Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes, a zesty twist on the classic breakfast dish! Bursting with fresh lemon flavor and a hint of crunch from poppy seeds, these fluffy pancakes are the perfect way to start your morning.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with lemon poppy seed pancakes.

00:09That's right, I'm usually not a big flavored pancake guy, but every once in a while, for

00:14a change of pace, I will toss in a little extra something something, and this time those

00:18somethings happen to be lemon and poppy seeds, which produced a very delicious and perfectly

00:24textured stack of pancakes.

00:26And to get started, we will transfer some white sugar into a mixing bowl, on top of

00:30which we will grate a generous amount of fresh lemon zest, and once that's been accomplished,

00:35we can move on with the rest of the batter, but I highly recommend we don't, and instead

00:40give this a quick mix with our whisk, and then let this sit on the counter for about

00:4415 minutes, since as you may know, when you combine sugar and lemon zest, it will actually

00:49help pull out those fragrant lemon oils, and whatever we're using our zest in will taste

00:54even more lemony and delicious.

00:57And by the way, this has a fancy culinary name.

00:59We call this process oleosaccharum, which means oil sugar, and that'll make more sense

01:04when we see it in about 15 minutes.

01:07So that is optional, but I always try to do it.

01:10And while we're waiting, we might as well mix up our dry ingredients, which is some

01:14all-purpose flour, to which we will add some salt, some baking powder, as well as its good

01:20friend and drinking buddy, baking soda, and that's it.

01:24We'll give this a quick mix with our whisk, and then we'll just set that aside until we

01:28need it.

01:29And once that was set, I went back and checked my zest, which has been sitting for about

01:3315 minutes, and it's probably going to look a little bit damp, which is good.

01:38That means things are happening.

01:40And then to our oil sugar, we will add our poppy seeds, along with one large whole egg,

01:46followed by some melted butter, and yes, a lot of pancake recipes call for oil, but

01:51for this one at least, I do prefer the flavor of the butter, but really, any kind of liquid

01:56fat will work.

01:57And then what we'll do is give this an enthusiastic and very thorough whisking, and then once

02:02we have everything nicely emulsified, and our mixture's looking something like this,

02:06we will stop and add our freshly squeezed lemon juice, some whole milk, and then last

02:12but not least, the flour mixture we prepped earlier.

02:16And that's it, we'll simply mix all this together with our whisk, just until that flour disappears,

02:22at which point we will stop, so as not to overmix, which can produce a tougher pancake

02:27with a more rubbery texture.

02:30And no one's ever ordered pancakes and said, these are good, but I wish they were a little

02:33more rubbery.

02:35So like I said, once that flour disappears, we will stop, and then not make pancakes,

02:41well at least not for like 10 or 15 minutes.

02:43Okay, one of the keys to really good pancakes is to let your batter sit for a little while

02:47before you cook it, right, we need to give our baking soda and baking powder time to

02:52activate, and after about 10 to 15 minutes, you will probably see some bubbles forming

02:57near the surface, as you can sort of see from this reverse angle, and that means we're ready

03:02to head to the stove, and then using an ice cream scooper, or a measuring cup, we will

03:07transfer our batter into a pan that we've heated on medium, in which we've melted some

03:11butter, or coated with a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil, or if you want, you can

03:16use a combo, which also works very nicely.

03:20And once we've transferred in sort of the same amount of batter for each pancake, we

03:24will let that cook for about four minutes or so, but, and this is very, very important,

03:29we do not go by time, we go by appearance, and the visual cue we're looking for is when

03:35we see a few bubbles popping up through the surface, right, we don't have to wait for

03:39a lot, just a few will do, and once you do see a few, we'll go ahead and flip these over,

03:46which if you've crowded your pan like I have, is always a little bit of an adventure, but

03:51don't worry, we'll be fine, and I think I always prefer slightly bigger pancakes, along

03:56with a little bit of excitement, than smaller pancakes with an easier flip, but you're gonna

04:01have to do your own risk-reward calculations, and that's it, we'll give the second side

04:06about three minutes or so, and since I did have a little piece from the edge break off,

04:11I was able to have a little sneak preview, which was very encouraging, but anyway, once

04:16we give that second side about the same time as the first, we'll go ahead and pull those

04:20out of the pan and plate up, and before I hit them with the maple syrup, I'm actually

04:25gonna garnish these with some extra poppy seeds and lemon zest, but in a shocking plot

04:30twist, I decided to add a dollop of whipped cream first, I know, I never do that, but

04:36I had a feeling that little bit of extra richness would really work nicely here, and

04:40it did, but anyway, final toppings are up to you, I mean you are after all the Top Gun,

04:47of whether going full IHOP would be fun, and that's it, one syrup, I grabbed a fork and

04:51knife and went in for a taste, and instead of just digging in like a savage, I tried

04:56to do the perfect triangle cut, so I could get some of all three pancakes on the fork,

05:03just like they show you in the food blogger handbook, and that, my friends, really was

05:07a fantastic bite of pancakes, and besides the fact I didn't put enough syrup on, these

05:13really were pretty much perfect in every way, like I said in the intro, I usually don't

05:18like to add a bunch of extra stuff to my pancake batter, okay, if I'm in a diner, and some

05:22kid at the table next to me orders chocolate chip pancakes, I will move, to a different

05:27city, but as long as we don't overdo it, and we're using things that always taste

05:32incredible together, like lemon and poppy seeds, I think it's totally fine, and occasionally

05:38appropriate, and as far as the texture goes, the two keys are not overmixing, and then

05:44being patient, and letting our batter rest for at least 10 or 15 minutes before we use

05:48it, and yes you can mix this up and pop it in the fridge for a while before you use it,

05:53which is exactly probably how they do it at your favorite diner, but these are so good,

05:58I don't think you're going to want to wait much longer than 15 minutes, but anyway the

06:01point is, it's that little wait that helps make these so great, and yes I did love the

06:07taste and texture of the cream, but not so much the appearance for the pictures, so I

06:12did plate one more up, using butter instead of whipped cream, which I think is more my

06:17style, but both were really, really good, and no matter how you top these, I really

06:23do hope you give them a try soon, so please follow the links below for the ingredient

06:28amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual, and as always, enjoy!

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