If I want pancakes for breakfast I have to prep them the night before.
I can make perfectly serviceable pancakes1 at any time, but my favourite this Whole Grain Pancake recipe on Food52 that asks you to soak the flour in milk overnight. I’ve become a sourdough baker, so I also add some sourdough discard - though it’s not necessary2. The result is beautiful, fluffy, tender pancakes every time.
There are other things you can do if you want really delicious pancakes. You can separate your eggs and beat the egg whites into a meringue before you fold them into the batter to make the pancakes even fluffier, like a Japanese souffle pancake. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a cup of buttermilk substitute by filling it up 75% with milk and the other 25% with vinegar and waiting about fifteen minutes. And of course, add-ins like chocolate chips or blueberries or bacon are always welcome.
If I’m not feeling the effort, I don’t have to wait overnight. Like I said, I can make perfectly serviceable pancakes at any time. These days however, if I have a craving, I’ll wait until I can execute it well.
Call it growing up. Call it romanticising your life. Or just call it making pancakes.
I’m not generally a patient person. At best, I am an aspiring patient person. I’d like to be the kind of person who takes my time to do things well instead of just fast. More often than not, I’m instead the person who just doesn’t do it all.
It goes hand in hand with the procrastination problem. If you procrastinate, you’re more likely to be a perfectionist; you’re putting something off because you’re anxious about doing well. Never mind that you can’t get better at a thing that you never do; never mind that the task might only take ten minutes; never mind that often the task is not something that can be graded on. I need to do my best, or I’d rather not do the thing at all.
For whatever reason, I don’t feel this same way about baking3. I’ve had a sourdough starter named Jeremy4 for a year and a half now. After a year or so of consistently baking, both sourdough and non-sourdough dishes, I’ve improved quite a lot as a baker. I’m not the best. I do want to be a better baker, but that doesn’t have a tangible goal associated with it. I don’t feel compelled to join the Great Australian Bake Off or build a bread business or even enter a competition. I bake for myself and other people. That’s enough for me.
Working with sourdough means that you can’t rush a project. If I want to make even a simple focaccia dough, it’ll take a whole day - not including the time it takes to feed Jeremy so he’s ready for use. That being said, a lot of the things I make don’t involve a lot of hands-on time. Thirty minutes of prep, twelve hours to ferment, bubble, rise. It’s the same way I write; thirty minutes of concentrated writing comes out of days of reading, thinking, collating - fermenting.
I often get very frustrated with how long it can take me to write something. Not just long-form creative work, but even short form copy or grant answers or newsletters like this. It feels like I should be able to just bang things out - and sometimes I can. Most times I can’t.
Sourdough did not teach me patience. It has taught me to appreciate the way I like to work. Creativity, nuance, thoughtfulness- you can’t just bang that out.
It’s also reminded me that the things I do just for myself are also worth doing well.
I bake a lot, and in terms of output, it’s mostly for other people. I can only eat so much bread and cookies before I have to put them in the freezer or give them away. In terms of fulfilment, however, I bake for me. I bake because I enjoy it. I want to get better at it for the pure pleasure of self-improvement. I do it because if I want pancakes, I deserve to have pancakes as good as I can make them.
Thanks for reading! Have a treat:
Firstly, Donut insisted I also get a photo of him.
And now a good meme:
The ratio, according to Michael Ruhlman’s The Ratio: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1/2 part butter: 2 parts flour.
The sourdough girlies know that you are constantly looking for ways to use up leftover sourdough discard.
Pancakes are qualified as a ‘quick cake’ batter and I’m putting it in the same category as baking because this is my email.
Full name Jeremy Bearimy