You Don't Need To Get Measuring Cups Dirty To Make Pancakes

In an ideal world, every weekend begins with a fluffy stack of pancakes — buttermilk, chocolate chip, blueberry pancakes; let's rotate to keep things interesting. Not to sound too greedy, but perhaps there's a side of bacon, French press coffee, and a spicy Bloody Mary, too.

Old fashioned pancakes, similar to French toast, crepes, muffins, and other baked goods, fall into that delicious category of foods that are sweet like a dessert but acceptable to eat for "the most important meal of the day," breakfast or brunch if you're fancy. According to National Geographic, pancakes were enjoyed as far back as the Stone Age and are associated with religious observances like Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day before Lent, when the faithful traditionally mix pancakes using ingredients like milk, butter, and eggs that will go bad during the six weeks of fasting. Pancakes are "a last hurrah" before people give up sweets during the lenten period.

"Flat as a pancake," hoecake, flapjack, griddle cake, slapjack, or blintz. The first commercially produced self-rising boxed pancake mix was created in the late 1880s by the Pearl Milling Company, formerly Aunt Jemima's, according to Lancaster Farming. While pancake mix is still popular today, homemade pancake mix is just as simple, without washing a bunch of measuring cups.

Commercially made pancake mix like Bisquick, which requires an egg and milk, contains enriched flour bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), dextrose, and salt. However, that's not what chef Jessica Elliott Dennison, the author of "Lazy Baking," needs for her One-Cup Pancakes recipe.

The recipe is based on the pancakes Dennison's mother made for her as a child. An "instinctive home cook rather than a meticulous baker," Dennison's mother didn't weigh or measure ingredients when baking, she told Epicurious. Using an 8 to 12-ounce juice glass or coffee mug, Dennison's recipe combines equal parts milk and self-rising flour, an egg, and sea salt flakes for the batter. The batter is fried in butter and drizzled with your favorite syrup. Making the best pancakes is as simple as whipping together a mix requiring the same wet ingredients as most boxes. Self-raising flour and self-rising flour can be used interchangeably but self-raising flour does not contain salt and has a bit more baking powder.

If you don't have either flour at home, you can make self-rising flour by adding ½ teaspoon of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt to a cup of all-purpose flour, whisking the ingredients well. If you make fluffy pancakes often, create your mix by mixing a large batch in a mason jar and storing the container in your pantry.