You Should Never Cook Your Pancakes In Butter. Here's Why
Everyone loves pancakes. Be it for breakfast or dinner, you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like hot griddle cakes dripping with butter and maple syrup, and if you do find someone who doesn't like them, you might want to question their food opinions. Seriously, pancakes and all the variations of this breakfast staple are delish. Most people cook their pancakes in butter. In fact, according to a Buzzfeed survey, 78 percent of people chose butter when answering which fat they use to cook their pancakes in.
It's easy to understand why butter is their grease of choice. It's like the secret ingredient in any recipe that makes everything taste that much better. Unfortunately, you may have noticed your pancakes tend to burn quicker when you use butter to grease your frying pan. This can be rough when you are trying to cook up a large batch of pancakes for the morning crowd.
The problem stems from the fact that butter has a low smoke point at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The high heat of your frying pan causes your butter to brown too quickly, resulting in burnt pancakes (via Taste of Home).
What to use instead of butter to cook your pancakes
Meanwhile, butter not only causes your pancakes to burn quicker, it can add additional calories and fat to your hotcakes (via Livestrong). Fats and oils, like butter, have a high concentration of calories, and even a small amount can significantly increase your calorie and saturated fat intake (via Healthline).
Pancakes prepared from a prepackaged mix are approximately 250 calories, and 8 grams of fat per 4-inch pancake. Fry it in butter and those number increase dramatically. And this doesn't even take into account the yummy toppings you will pile on top of your short stack. If you love your fluffy stack of pancakes, you can still have them, but experts recommend trying some alternative methods for cooking them up. Skip the butter and oil all together, and consider using a good non-stick pan for frying your pancakes (via Very Well Fit). This will both help reduce calories and fat intake while producing hot, golden, spongey (non-burnt) pancakes that will make everyone happy.