Fixing Pancakes & Waffles That Taste Like Flour

Here we will discuss what can be done to fix pancakes or waffles that taste like flour. Of course the answer that you don’t want to hear is “Because it has flour in it.” So does cookies, cakes, bread (has more than most recipes), muffins, and many other baked goods.

So why do your pancakes/waffles taste like flour?

Pancakes and waffles can taste like flour when they are not cooked properly all the way through. This can also happen when the batter isn’t thoroughly mixed. All of the lumps in the batter need to be removed.

It is possible to have lumps that are in the batter, that are filled with extra dry flour. It commonly occurs when a pancake/waffle recipe is calling for more flour in ratio to the other liquid ingredients in the recipe.

It then becomes easy for the lumps to form and encase themselves in the batter. If these lumps are opened, inside will be the dry flour, especially if these lumps are considerable in size. Even after thoroughly mixing the batter, this can still occur.

To fix this, more milk or water has to be added to the batter, so that these lumps can actually disappear into the batter and become batter.

Even if the recipe seems to be from a good source, and you followed all the directions exactly with the correct proportions, dry flour can still be in the batter. This will make the pancakes taste like flour after they are cooked.

Before adding more water or flour to the batter, ensure that all the liquids in the batter have been properly mixed into the rest of the batter. Then from there, you can get a sense of how much milk or water can be added to the batter to fix the lumps. Add a little portion of the liquids into the batter at a time, mix it in thoroughly, then repeat as necessary.

Water will work better than milk for thinning out the batter and removing the lumps in the pancake or waffle batter. This is because the milk is thicker than the water. It is ok to add water too, even if the pancake or waffle recipe doesn’t have it as an ingredient.

It is easy for the lumps to form too whenever additional ingredients that are dry and capable of absorbing water, are added into the batter. For example, oats that are added to pancake batter before cooking. These extra ingredients have to be taken into account if they can easily absorb more moisture. More liquid are needed to compensate.

The additional ingredients can absorb the liquids in the recipe, leaving dry flour in the batter. This can leave the recipe lacking in liquid ingredients, even if the pancakes or waffles would usually cook correctly without the additionals in the batter. When extra things are included straight into the batter, adjustments have to be made accordingly to make sure the pancake or waffles cook correctly.

Even if the batter doesn’t have a lot of lumps, there still can be really small ones in the batter that are filled with dry flour. These small bumps in the batter can still end up cooking with the batter; therefore making the pancakes or waffles taste like flour after they are finished cooking.

Density

With all of this said, if the batter is thin enough and well hydrated, the next thing to check is the density. If too much flour is being used to make the batter for the pancakes or the waffles, then the pancakes or waffles can taste like flour after they are cooked.

Remember that it is supposed to be a batter, which means that it shouldn’t be dense with flour. Using too much flour will make the batter too dense. Flour is capable of soaking up a lot of liquids, but it still can end up making the batter too dense, even if there are no lumps in the batter.

If too much flour is used in the batter recipe, when the pancakes or waffles are cooking, they will appear to be cooked. However, the extra flour will make the pancakes or waffles taste like flour. The extra flour particles will cook along with the batter.

In the end result, the pancakes/waffles will appear to be finished, but all that happened was a partial cooking. The extra flour in the batter will have heated only, and cannot properly cook, because more water or milk is needed in the batter to properly cook it.

In some cases the pancakes or waffles can even look more grainy and dry. When the inside is opened, pancake or waffle will even look really dense and bready. The breading may also look inconsistent in texture and morphed.

Sometimes the outer layer will also have bits of dry flour on it. To fix this, more of the basic ingredients need to be added to the batter to compensate for the extra flour.

If an individual is trying to make their batter with less basic ingredients than what is required for the portioning to make basic pancakes or waffles, then the result will be pancakes or waffles that may taste like flour. This same thing also applies to making bread.

This is basically the reverse of adding too much flour by reducing the ingredients in the batter or dough for making the pancakes, waffles, or bread. The other ingredients are essential for making the pancakes/waffles come out correctly.

To fix this, use the correct amount of ingredients for the batter recipe, and do not remove them or diminish them. If you are taking out the ingredients to make the pancakes or waffles healthier, the easier way is to just make them with the proper amount of ingredients and eat a smaller portion.

Until this habit is dropped of trying to minimize the basic ingredients for making the actual pancakes and waffles, then the problem of them tasting like flour will persist. The pancakes and waffles will continue to taste like flour, even if the type of flour is changed.

Individuals have went through this same process when cooking bread, doing the same things by changing the flour, but still come out with bread that tastes like flour, more or less. These same individuals reduced the basic ingredients in the dough and had the same problem.

Taking the salt or sugar out of them will make the pancakes or waffles bland, but using too high of a proportion of flour will make them taste like flour.