This Simple Step Makes Pancakes Taste Totally Diner-Worthy

The line between the best pancakes and terrible ones is about half an inch thick — where instead of stacking up tall and proud, your pancakes end up flat, dense and kind of sad. And on those occasions when you don't end up biting into buttery, pillowy pancakes as planned, you can be left wondering whether to ditch the batter and fry some eggs instead. We've all been there. The good news is that with one simple step, pancakes can always be diner-worthy: All you need to do is bring your ingredients to room temperature.

Most basic pancake batter recipes tell you to mix together flour, milk, butter and egg, with perhaps a dash of baking powder, sugar, and maybe a pinch of salt. But instead of taking the dairy and eggs out of the fridge before combining them with flour to make your batter, let them reach room temperature first. This will ensure that your pancakes are always light, fluffy, and comparable to the ones you get in your favorite diner.

The reason for this is that cold solid ingredients don't blend in evenly with the batter. Using cold eggs and milk can lead to lumps in your batter as well. But if all your ingredients are at room temperature, the eggs are looser and the butter softer and it's much easier to combine them and they can trap air more easily. Result: A nice, consistent batter. This all allows the baking powder to play its part as a leavening agent by adding even more air bubbles to the mix which brings extra fluffiness while cooking.

When it comes to pancakes, there's no such thing as too fluffy and in case you want to keep pushing the boundaries, here are two more tips. The first is to separate the egg whites and whip them until they're forming soft peaks. Gently fold them in with the rest of the ingredients, and what you now have is the perfect batter for what we call soufflé pancakes (yes, these taste as delicious as they sound). The process of folding in the whisked egg whites separately basically increases the amount of air in the batter, for the lightest airiest pancakes around.

The second tip is to use a ring mold to make your pancakes picture-perfect. This ensures your pancakes are perfectly round and forces them to rise vertically when the batter expands as it cooks. Once bubbles start appearing on top, gently slide the ring mold off before flipping your pancake.

With all these pancake game raisers, it's time to take the toppings to the next level too. And if a dulce de leche or an apple butter sound interesting, our list of 20 pancake toppings other than maple syrup is just what you need.