I am trying to make pancakes for a two year old child. I used the following ingredients:
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 60ml oats
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Sri Lankan cinnamon powder
But it comes out too bitter. Now I am no expert. I have always made pancakes with storebought batter. But it felt to me that the problem was not the lack of sweetners but too much bitterness from either the cinnamon powder or baking powder. I can't tell which one exactly. Or if it because the cinnamon powder is Sri Lankan. That is what it says on the container. I don't know what the implications of that are.
Any idea what I am doing wrong?
Adding cinnamon into batter means it gets cooked, which can make it bitter. Sprinkling it on later may work better. Baking powder, if blended enough shouldn't make a difference.
that does seem like a lot of baking powder for the amount you're making, might be worth trying 1/2 teaspoon instead or just omitting it entirely
bruh a TABLESPOON of baking powder - stop what you're doing and follow my recipe instead
Here's my own recipe:
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar (honey/banana substitute here)
- a pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 7/4 cups of milk
Other recipes I see have 1-2 teaspoons baking powder and/or 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I suspect its the cinnamon that is hurting the flavors. I would reduce that to a pinch, or forgo it altogether and sprinkle it on the finished pancake.
Another issue I suspect is that there isn't a good solid/liquid ratio. According to the cookbook Ratio, There should be roughly a 1:1 amount of milk (or equivalent) to your flour/oats, and its also missing butter, which is ~ 2:1 flour-butter ratio. The full ratio should be around 4:4:2:1 (flour, milk/liquid, egg, butter). The banana and honey will substitute for some of the liquid component. The book suggests this recipe based on those ratios:
- 8 ounces milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 ounces butter (1/2 stick, melted)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Think it is the baking powder. Not really made "fluffy" pancakes, but for the crepe-like ones you don't need to add sugar to keep it from being bitter.
Thanks. I am inclined to agree. I will try forgoing it altogether next time and see how that goes.
You sure that honey is not getting fucked by cooking? Sugar withstands higher temperatures 🤔
I'm not sure. It's possible. I'll use sugar this time. I didn't know that cooking had that kind of effect on honey or anything really.
I’m also not sure that this is the problem exactly, but I know it browns faster than sugar, and sugar gets bitter when it starts to burn, so kinda small extrapolation.
Oh, and I’ve used cinnamon for pancakes, haven’t noticed bitterness tbh
I think you should either double the banana, oats, and egg amounts for that much baking powder, or drop the baking powder to 1/4 if you wish to stick with the recipe. Also make it teaspoon, not tablespoon
Personally I don't mind extra cinnamon in my pancakes or French toast, but you should probably also lower the amount as well to either 1/8 or just do the chef's "just a light shake or two" measurement.
On honey, I've never put sweeteners in pancake batter so I have no idea how that impacts it. Personally I'd skip it and pour it on the end product myself, but this could be a fun opportunity for you to experiment doing both and seeing how they end up.
1/2 tbsp of baking powder is a lot. You need 1 tsp for the amount you've got there.
The cinnamon probably isn't helping too, it can burn easily which makes it bitter. Probably just sprinkle it when you serve it with honey and banana.
It's definitely the baking soda! The taste can be very odd and off-putting for kids. I would also encourage using milk or a milk substitute to mix if the little guy tolerates dairy.
