How Brooklyn’s Best Pancakes are Made

[lively jazz music]

My name is Jake Lieber.

I am the chef and owner of Chez Ma Tante

here in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Today, I'm gonna show you how to make my perfect pancakes.

[bell rings]

Chez Ma Tante has been open for nearly nine years now.

It was inspired by the nouveau bistro scene in Paris.

Pancakes, probably the most popular dish.

They make literally, like, 1,200 pancakes on a weekend.

They have this great crispy edge.

Pushing the color on them

to get that toasted marshmallow flavor is transcendent.

So, I'm gonna start by cracking all my eggs.

If you get shells in your bowl,

there's this lovely trick that if you use a shell,

it scoops it out really easily.

If I tried to use my fingers for that,

it would just slide around and avoid my fingers

like my children avoiding going to bed.

I'm gonna do eight and eight, eggs and egg yolks.

I'm just using my hands

to separate the whites from the yolk.

I'm letting the whites slip through my fingers,

my very clean, recently washed hands.

You do not have to waste your whites at all.

You can make an omelet out of them.

You can save them to make meringue.

Extra yolks contribute richness.

I'm gonna cream my sugar a bit

just to make sure that it's evenly distributed.

I'm gonna go in with salt

and baking powder

to make them rise.

Probably the most important thing about the batter,

we're mixing our ingredients evenly so we don't have some

that end up flat and some that end up fluffy.

But look at it already.

It's starting to activate.

I'm going with about half the milk.

I'm using whole milk.

Skimmed milk is [beep].

By adding milk in stages,

it helps me make my batter a little bit more even.

This is bleached all-purpose flour.

Adding the flour bit by bit helps to avoid lumps.

Now it's getting tight.

I can feel my arm, like it's starting

to feel like cement a little bit.

I'm gonna add a little bit more of my milk.

Kinda gotta use your eye a bit.

If the batter's super wet, your pancakes are gonna be flat,

and nobody wants flat pancakes.

One of the special things about this recipe

is that we use clarified butter,

butter that has been separated from the milk solids.

And once I add the fat,

don't be scared if you see it broken.

It will incorporate.

And that's about the consistency we're looking for.

A little bit like a drippy sand castle.

Any, like, decent supermarket has clarified butter

these days, called ghee.

G-H-E-E.

If you don't have clarified butter,

you can use literally any oil that you have in your pantry.

We also use a little bit of lemon zest.

Zest doesn't add acidity, but it adds brightness.

It helps cut the richness of the pancakes.

Some people ask me why

I put my microplane in my belly button.

It's like my fishing rod anchor.

I wasn't thinking about it, but then somebody called me out.

They're like, Is your microplane in your belly button?

And I was like,

Yeah.

I've been talking a lot, and my batter is tightening.

It's holding even longer than it would before.

That's partially because I emulsified some fat into it.

And the fat is cooling in the cold egg and the cold milk.

You can make your batter in advance.

You probably should, actually,

at least even an hour in advance.

You can rest it in the fridge.

I actually have a batch of rested pancake batter right here.

By resting your batter,

it hydrates and it cools.

The fat is super, like, congealed in here,

and it's gonna hold its shape when it hits the hot griddle.

[lively jazz music]

So, what really sets this pancake apart

is what I'm about to do right now.

I know you saw me putting clarified butter into the batter.

I'm gonna fry 'em in an ocean of clarified butter,

and that's what really makes 'em special, super crispy.

Clarified butter has a much higher smoke point

than traditional butter.

We don't run any risk of burning our fat,

making the fat bitter in the pancake.

As it warms, the fat is shimmering,

and it's just barely starting to smoke.

The griddle should be at a good temperature.

If you do not have a griddle like this at home,

you can use literally any frying pan.

It doesn't matter, especially, it doesn't matter

because you're using this much fat.

So, I have my rested batter here.

This is maybe a four-ounce ladle.

But it's dropping in, and it's sizzling right away,

which is exactly what we're looking for.

And I'm gonna give them enough space

'cause they're going to expand.

These generally take eight or so minutes to cook

this very cold, thick batter all the way through.

I have eight on here.

They're nice and evenly spaced.

This one is frying more, obviously.

It's hotter in the middle.

That's because the rim is absorbing heat.

But they're setting.

I don't wanna disturb them too much just yet.

And we want it to set almost like a custard.

Once they set, I'm gonna move them around

'cause I have this really nice pancake in the middle

that's getting a little bit too much heat

and the other ones need a little bit of heat, too.

These generally take eight or so minutes to cook.

80% of the cooking on the first side.

This one's pretty much ready.

The bubbles are not nearly as active,

and it's like kinda tacky up top, looks dry,

so that when we flip it,

it doesn't flatten and eject

the raw batter on the other side.

I like a smaller turner because I'm gonna gently flip

from one side over to the other.

I'm seeing a pancake now that's a shade

or two darker than golden brown.

I'm seeing double rings.

I'm seeing a double rainbow right now.

See this ring here and this ring here?

That's magic.

And this right here is super crispy and super fluffy.

I'm gonna start looking at my other pancakes.

They're all looking really nice.

Gonna flip this guy right here.

That's a nice color, too.

Look at that one.

I like my pancakes dark

because they end up having this,

like, almost burnt caramel flavor to them.

You don't want it to be, like, soft and anemic-looking.

I just splattered a [beep] on myself,

which is par for the course.

Okay, so now look at this.

It's splattered out a little bit.

It's just underset, just a tiny bit.

It's a usable pancake.

Also, it's gonna rise on its second side.

It's gonna keep rising.

Pancakes are like snowflakes.

They're all beautiful in their own way.

And then once you flip them, they need time to rise again.

This is the first one. I know this one's cooked.

If I tap on my pancake

and it doesn't, like, compress at all,

it's cooked all the way through.

They should sound like patting a baseball mitt

or someone's tushy.

So, they're all sounding pretty good to me.

Let's go to the biggest ones on the bottom.

These are hot off the griddle.

I'm gonna cover them in butter and maple syrup.

Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

[relaxing jazz music]

I've got my plate here.

We have five pancakes.

Normally, we serve two.

I'm gonna put a heaping ice cream scoop of salted butter.

It's whipped.

You might not need more fat,

but if you're counting calories, like,

get the [beep].

We used to serve them covered in maple syrup.

Now we pour them tableside.

I'm gonna drench them

in this lovely Pennsylvania maple syrup.

I don't like random [beep] all over my pancakes.

You don't need nuts.

You don't need fruit.

You don't need anything.

You just need butter and maple syrup.

They look gorgeous.

They're dark.

They have this wonderful ring.

This shattering, glass-like crispy edge.

They're absolutely perfect.

You can see how fluffy it is.

[glass clinking]

They're sweet, but they're not too sweet.

The lemon, like, you might not think it does anything,

but it really comes through.

They're really nice and crispy.

It has that almost barely burnt flavor.

And then you get a little bit more salt from the butter.

Look at these layers.

Look at that.

It's like a harp.

[gentle harp music]

Comments below.

If you would buy my pancake mix, I'll make it.

I'll make it.

Let's make some money.

Get some money doing.

I'm losing money.

Make money making pancakes.