An ideal make-ahead breakfast, Alton Brown's nitrous pancakes blend batter in a whipped cream canister for light, fluffy pancakes every time.

Course: Breakfast

Keyword: Brunch, Comfort Food, Hacks

Nitrous Pancakes

Name: Nitrous Pancakes
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 12 min
Ingredients: 180 grams all-purpose flour; 220 grams buttermilk; 2 large eggs; 28 grams sugar; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 tablespoon unsalted or clarified butter

ACTIVE TIME: 10

TOTAL TIME: 12

Yield: 6 large pancakes

One day I was walking through the megamart, and there in the dairy section I spied a can of aerosol pancake mix...like Reddi-wip, but pancake mix. And I thought: GENIUS!

I took it home and cooked it and it was crap. But what an idea! Luckily, we have a nitrous oxide (N2O) cream whipper in our possession.

You'll notice that the ingredients below are in grams. That's because accuracy here really matters. So break out the digital scale.

This recipe first appeared in EveryDayCook.

Photo by Lynne Calamia

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Software

180 grams all-purpose flour
220 grams buttermilk
2 large eggs
28 grams sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon unsalted or clarified butter

Specialized Hardware

Digital kitchen scale

1-liter cream whipper

1 N2O (nitrous-oxide) charger

ACTIVE TIME: 10

TOTAL TIME: 12

Yield: 6 large pancakes

Procedure

Whisk the flour, buttermilk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt together. Use a funnel to pour the mixture into the cream whipper, but do not fill above the maximum fill line. Lid the cream whipper, charge with 1 N2O charger, and shake vertically 15 to 20 times. Set aside for 1 minute.
Heat the butter in a nonstick pan. Invert and carefully dispense as many rounds of batter as will fit in pan with a few inches between them. Cook until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Repeat with remaining batter.