It may be the ultimate high-rise pancake. And one of the fluffiest. And its creator combines a whole slew of ‘secrets’ to ensure it stays on top of its game. Now you can try your hand at producing para-mount pancake pulchritude at home…
Luella’s signature Golden Diner Pancake is truly a thing of beauty, and a joy to behold…
Fans wait hours for these…
The’s always a lineup for Luella’s Pancakes. Sometimes it’s literally hours long. So they say. But the Chicago hot spot refuses to cut corners to turn them out faster. And the wait is definitely worth it, accord-ing to dyed-in-the-wool fans.
How do they make it so tall?
“Cooks […] pour batter leavened with yeast into nonstick pans that are preheated on a griddle,” Eater.com correspondent Bettina Makalintal begins…
“With the batter constrained to a small pan, as opposed to flowing free-form on the griddle itself, the cake has nowhere to go but up, giving the pancakes fluffiness, height, and [its] signature flying-saucer shape,” she continues. “After the edges brown, the pancake is transferred to the salamander, which radiates heat evenly to cook the pancake’s other side without it having to be flipped manually. Once it’s fully cooked, the pancake is turned onto a plate, thick and domed.”
A lot of trouble for a pancake?
This may be the most complicated, longest-prep time pancake recipe ever conceived. But it’s made Luella’s famous – since the first day the original location opened, in Chicago. So they won’t change a thing. Almost…
“Our recipe has not changed,” owner Darnell Reed says. But: “We bake them in cast-iron skillets [now] versus on the griddle.” And nobody is complaining.
The good news is…
… You can make them at home – if you really want to put in the time and effort.
The recipe, from The New York Times, is basically a clone of the Luella’s original. It also includes everything you need to know to reproduce Golden Diner’s special Honey Butter and Strawberry Compote…
My take
First… If you didn’t click the link, a salamader, in the kitchen, is not a lizard that’s been out in the sun too long. It’s a purpose-made broiler mainly used to finish dished that want to get sizzled, toasted or simply browned on top…
A broader ‘thing’
Super-tall pancakes are apparently a thing right now, at trendy restos all over the North America.
Golden Diner chef and owner Sam Yoo, stresses Luella’s classic Buttermilk griddler is not just a take on the well-known Japanese ‘soufflé’ pancake. The latter are leavened with egg whites, which, Yoo says, felt, “too much like a meringue,” to him. The Luella’s-style pancake, he says, “eats more like a [real]pancake.”
If the fan fame and favour heaped on the original Luella’s creation is any indiction, the tall pancake thing is likely to transcend fad and even trend status to become an American classic!
~ Maggie J.