Pancakes and waffles are designed to be a little less flavorful, but certainly not bland. We will cover how to fix bland pancakes and waffles to make them more flavorful.
Usually when pancakes and waffles are made, they are designed to be in a way that they should have butter or syrup (or both) added to them later. The flavor of pancakes and waffles isn’t initially intended to be very strong. However, some individuals (including myself) do prefer their pancakes and waffles more tasteful without having to smother them with syrup.
I feel that they are healthier this way, and just better tasting in general. When most individuals think of the pancakes themselves as having flavor, it is usually corresponding to a buttery flavor.
Here are some things that you might be doing when you make your pancakes and waffles that are causing them to taste bland.
- Skipping the little salt.
- If you are skipping out on putting salt in your pancake or waffle batter, then it could be the reason why they are so bland. Salt is still important in foods that you would think that they shouldn’t be in. Give it a try with your pancakes or waffles.
- Even when the pancakes and waffles are going to be eaten with syrup or honey, salt can do a lot of justice in making those bland things taste better.
- If you are already using a salt but the pancakes/waffles don’t have flavor, then try adding a lot more into the batter. If you are adding in the usual sugar into the batter, then more won’t hurt, as the sugars could make the waffles/pancakes taste better with the salt.
- It is possible without even adding butter to make the pancakes or waffles taste like butter with enough salt while, using a typical simple recipe.
- Skipping the sugar.
- The sugar in the pancakes is still important for flavor, even if the pancakes will still have syrup on them. The same thing goes for waffles.
- When the waffle/pancake batter is made with these sugars, it adds an embedded flavor that can be tasted if enough sugar is used. Make your batter with enough sugar so that this can happen.
- The pancakes or waffles will have a faint sweet taste to them when this is done correctly.
- Skipping out on the fats in milk.
- Making pancake or waffle batter with milk that has no fat can make the pancakes taste bland. This is why whole milk and soy milks for example, are more flavorful than fat free milk.
- If you can’t have whole milk, then use a whole milk brand made for the lactose intolerant. There are other options, like oat milk, that is also flavorful with less fats than whole milk.
- Skipping out on the correct type of butter.
- When you use butter in the batter for making pancakes or waffles, it is important to make sure that you are using a flavorful butter. Butter can help to keep the integrity of the pancakes and waffles, but it’s other job is to give them flavor.
- Butter is the prime ingredient in most pancakes and waffles that give them flavor. Make sure you add enough of it, and that you are using salted butter, not unsalted butter.
- Butter is extremely important as it contains almost all the essential things in it that makes almost all foods taste better. There is a reason why butter is offered as a side for pancakes and waffles when ordered from restaurants.
- Having butter in the actual batter is more effective in flavor than adding it directly on top of the pancakes or waffles.
- Not seasoning the pan with butter.
- Using a cooking oil instead of butter to season the pan before pouring the batter can make the pancakes less flavorful. Use the salted butter to lightly cover the pan with it before pouring the batter in it to cook.
- Cooking oils do add flavor to the food, but butter does better.
- Being too stingy with the butter, oil, sugar, and salt.
- In order for those bland pancakes or waffles to taste good, there has to be more of the things in it that make all foods taste good. Being afraid to add in some extra salt, butter, sugar, or oils, will make them taste bland in the end. All that will be left is the flour to hold the taste.
- Depending on toppings to hold the flavor.
- Adding toppings to the pancakes or waffles will only make the portions of the pancakes or waffles taste better where the toppings are, not the whole thing in general. They can be great to compliment the flavor, but they are not meant to hold the entire flavor.
- Expecting a topping of fruits or another topping to erase the bland taste, is like adding syrup to bland waffles or pancakes. It may work, but more of it has to be used to hide the bland taste.
- Using too much flour to the proportion of other ingredients.
- Flour doesn’t really have a good flavor. If this is what makes up most of your batter, then it will make the pancakes or waffles possibly taste bland. It could even end up making them taste like flour altogether.
- The pancake or waffle batter should always be a little loose when it is made. It shouldn’t be thick and full of lumps. Loosen it up with more fatty milk, butter, cooking oil, or even water.
- The batter you made could possibly be thick enough to make double the amount of pancakes if it was loosed up a bit.
- Not mixing the batter thoroughly.
- If you aren’t mixing the batter thoroughly, then it could cause some of the pancakes or waffles to taste bland. Some of the first ones made will be flavorful, while the last ones are left bland from the poorly mixed batter. It could also be vice-versa depending on the order that the ingredients were placed in to make the batter.
- Thoroughly mix the batter and don’t let “over mixing the batter” stop you. The density of pancakes and waffles is determined by the proportion of the ingredients, not magically over mixing it.
- Make sure all of the ingredients are well mixed and distributed if you are sure that you used enough of butter, salt, and sugar to keep them from tasting bland.
Everyone has their own preferences of what they like, but the essential ingredients in pancakes are still needed to keep them from tasting bland.
If you want the pancakes or waffles to taste sweeter, then use more sugar in the batter. Powdered sugar is great at making bland pancakes or waffles naturally taste sweeter, when it is substituted in for regular sugar in the batter. It absorbs into the batter very fast, meaning that it will distribute more easily when mixing it.
If you want the pancakes or waffles to taste like buttered ones, then use more butter in the batter or add more salt in combination with the milk.
