The Lazy Man's Pancake

 by mightysinetheta
Featured
Pancakes are delicious, but time consuming to make if you don't have a large cooking surface. Being limited to making just a few 4" flapjacks at a time across two pans was less than optimal in my opinion; especially when I'm just cooking for myself. My solution is to make one giant pancake in an oven-safe pan, cutting cooking time from (N/C)*t to roughly (D/d)*t. See the last page and spreadsheet for details.
 
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Step 1: Make the batter

I've tested this with batter equivalent to 10-12 4" pancakes. A good rule of thumb is that this Instructable is useful if the area of 4" pancakes you want to make is between 1.5-2.5x the area of the pan you are using. Too much more than that and it gets too thick and gets on the cake side, as the multiplier directly reflects the thickness of the pancake. Thus, at 2.5x you have a pancake that is now 2.5 times thicker than it normally is. The opposite is also true, and if you go below 1x then you are making a crepe.

For a 9" diameter pan, the low end would be about 8 4" pancakes, the high end about 13.
A 10" pan's useful range would be 10-16 4' pancakes.

Set your oven to 375 F. Making the batter is quick, and you want the oven to be ready to go in step 4. Now make the batter.

I use pancake mix, because I generally don't have milk and eggs on hand. If you don't use mix, thats cool too: do whatever you generally do to make pancake batter for however many pancakes you want to eat and skip to the next step.

For those of you who are using mix, err on the side of the batter being a little thin. I interpolate the measurements for numbers of pancakes off the chart on the back of the package: with a massive bag, the gradations of the chart are not fine enough, so this is somewhat necessary. I also convert the measurements to metric, but thats a matter of personal preference.
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zzoe says: Apr 9, 2012. 1:50 PM
Yummy - i love baked pancakes!
But...
Honestly, folks, 'from scratch' IS - JUST - NOT - THAT - HARD.
Can no one spare the extra 30 seconds for ultimate über-yumminess?
gossypia says: May 16, 2011. 8:39 AM
Enjoyed reading this thread and when I got to hostile hams comment I laughed till I cried
iamjelo says: Apr 5, 2011. 6:54 AM
i remember my sister made home-made pancake using my mom's own recipe, back when we were in nigeria. i think she put too much baking powder. it looked nice for it was puffy. but the taste? VERY BITTER!! we stuck to my mom's recipe from then on. or we go to the grocery and by pancake mix. hehehe
Kogitsune says: Mar 30, 2011. 6:19 AM
The cool thing about this is that you can do the same trick with corn bread too :). I'll probably give this a shot some time, good idea.
l8nite says: Mar 28, 2011. 4:55 PM
sorry I missed this earlier.. it's to cool to NOT DO !
zs says: Feb 22, 2011. 11:39 AM
even better than just add water, they now sell pancakes in aerosol cans like, whipped cream in a can
mrray says: Sep 9, 2010. 10:49 AM
Thank you for shaving off an hour of my morning while I am still groggy. i love the thick goodness of a Lazy pancake....blessings on you and your childrens children
Punkguyta says: Jul 26, 2009. 10:36 PM
You guys need to check out my pancakes
grandavi says: Jun 9, 2009. 9:09 AM
Did it take you longer to do the math than to make the pancake?
subtraho says: Feb 27, 2008. 11:55 AM
This is ridiculously cool - huzzah for food science!

However, I must say that this product, albeit horrifying, is likely lazier still.
cdizzle in reply to subtrahoMay 29, 2009. 11:49 AM
I clicked your link i would say that is the thinking of a fat lazy man
Blastfurnace in reply to subtrahoMay 21, 2009. 9:05 AM
LOL! I love your use of 'horrifying'. I read your post, clicked on the link, not knowing what to expect and when it popped up I laughed out loud.
JellyWoo in reply to subtrahoJan 25, 2009. 12:51 PM
cool.
Notags in reply to subtrahoJan 23, 2009. 7:51 PM
I can get this just down the road! Spray Pancakes!! I'll bet it's near the Spray Cheese!
w00ty32 in reply to subtrahoMar 1, 2008. 5:03 PM
Oh my ****ing god...... america is lazy.
Plasmana in reply to w00ty32Jan 21, 2009. 2:11 AM
Haha! Yeah, just spray your pan, cook, and eat!
depayton in reply to w00ty32Apr 18, 2008. 8:07 AM
He's not lazy. He's smart for streamlining the cooking process to minimize total cooking time. It's apparent that he has other things to be doing like studying.
awang8 in reply to depaytonJan 23, 2009. 10:02 PM
And I suppose you'll say he's smart because aerosol pancakes are bad for the enviroment?
w00ty32 in reply to depaytonApr 18, 2008. 9:35 PM
I am not bad mouthing the huge,awesome pancake, i am bad mouthing this horror....
janquito in reply to w00ty32Jan 22, 2009. 6:58 AM
I never heard of Batter Blaster till I clicked on your "horror". :o)
pineapplenewton in reply to w00ty32Jan 20, 2009. 7:18 PM
I agree that thing is terrible but i do like Bisquick shake and pore. Its like a detergent bottle shaped thing with bis quick and a line to pore water up to then you shake it and pore it onto the pan.
w00ty32 in reply to pineapplenewtonFeb 22, 2009. 4:57 PM
bisquik shake and pore is just pancake mix in an expensive bottle.
zascecs in reply to w00ty32Apr 13, 2009. 2:55 PM
Whats the point of buying it then?.... ....lol
pineapplenewton in reply to w00ty32Feb 22, 2009. 5:19 PM
but its convent and its a bowl you don't need to clean
brothertuck in reply to pineapplenewtonApr 12, 2009. 9:43 AM
get the shake and pour once and just use it to shake and pour regular bisquick pancakes.
canida in reply to w00ty32Jan 20, 2009. 3:24 PM
We tried it just for the amusement value. The pancakes tasted awful.
Plasmana in reply to canidaJan 21, 2009. 2:15 AM
It would, because they have to put in all sorts of chemicals in the can to keep the contents good, just imagine the eggs and milk in moist condition sitting in the can for a long time...
Skor459 in reply to canidaJan 20, 2009. 7:59 PM
I tried a can too but, wow, it was just horrid. I'll stick to batter mix or iHop.
sowhatu in reply to Skor459Jan 23, 2009. 10:34 AM
why can't they have ihop in canada?? :(
jedi pen-gui-n in reply to sowhatuJan 27, 2009. 6:15 AM
did you add sugar?
mg0930mg in reply to canidaJan 20, 2009. 4:03 PM
I bet!
Dungeonbrownies in reply to w00ty32May 1, 2008. 11:11 PM
i bet somewhere out there someones eating ti straight from the can
w00ty32 in reply to DungeonbrowniesMay 10, 2008. 9:24 AM
sadly, i wouldnt be surprised.
zascecs in reply to w00ty32Apr 13, 2009. 2:57 PM
A REALLY lazy person...
mightysinetheta (author) in reply to subtrahoFeb 27, 2008. 5:45 PM
Now you just need a way to cook it as its coming out of the can...pancakes on demand.
hostile_hams in reply to mightysinethetaJun 2, 2008. 6:14 PM
!!!I KNOW HOW!!!!! step 1. duct tape blow torch to batter blaster so the the nozzle of the batter blaster will be in front of the flame. step 2. turn on blow torch. step 3. batter blast!
awang8 in reply to hostile_hamsJan 28, 2009. 9:50 PM
Propane torches would probably be better... Or try microwaving the can (it makes explosions but the light show would be worth it).
YummyPancakes in reply to hostile_hamsJul 15, 2008. 5:52 PM
I'm ROTFLing at the thought of what that would produce! Instructable would be kind.
YummyPancakes in reply to YummyPancakesJul 22, 2008. 7:06 PM
Actually, Instructable would be just plain mean.
hostile_hams in reply to YummyPancakesJul 21, 2008. 8:18 PM
I'm kind of afraid to try it. I think the batter blaster would kill me. I mean, its genetically modified pancakes. and everyone knows thats how you make superherovillianmutantllamaswiththreeeyes. yeah I definetly have thought about this too much.
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