We love that visual, Debra: a dancing water droplet that quickly evaporates! You're right to think that the temperature of the pan is critical if you're looking to make perfect, extra-fluffy pancakes. The pan can't be too hot, otherwise the center of the pancakes will still be raw and doughy by the time the outside is already cooked. And if it's too low? The pancakes won't rise as high, as they'll miss that sudden burst of direct heat that helps activate the leaveners. The solution: start with a well-preheated pancake over medium-high heat and then turn the heat down to medium-low as soon as your batter hits the pan to finish cooking.

All stoves vary with how quickly they heat up and how strong the heat is, so you'll have to do a bit of experimenting to figure out what works for your kitchen. I usually let the pan preheat for 3 to 4 minutes. If you then spray the pan and it begins to smoke right away, it's too hot. When you add the batter to a pan at the ideal temperature, it should sizzle but just ever so slightly. If it spatters and makes a hissing noise, it's too hot. If it doesn't make any noise as all, it's too low. My advice: start with a silver dollar-sized pancake to get an idea of timing and heat. It's true that you may need to lower the heat as you bake subsequent batches, especially if you're using a cast iron pan, which retains heat longer than pans made from other materials. You'll still want to increase the heat a bit before adding another round of batter, but perhaps just increase the heat to medium instead of medium-high for a few minutes before dropping the temperature to medium-low to finish cooking.

As for your question about spraying the pan or greasing it with butter, we'll cover that more in-depth in part 3 of this series, so stay tuned! (In a nut shell, greasing the pan ensures that the pancakes are easy to flip but the results tend to be more evenly golden in color if you skip the grease in the pan and instead add a little extra fat to the batter. Read more soon!) Kye@KAF

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