Deb Perelman Is Smitten With Our Most Popular Pancake Recipe

Whether you make them on a sheet pan or skillet, prefer them super-thin or soufflé-style, enjoy them cereal-flavored or on a charcuterie board, or need them vegan, gluten-free, or keto, pancakes come in more varieties than Baskin Robbins' 31 ice cream flavors. And everyone has their opinions about what makes something the "best pancake recipe."

Until recently, Smitten Kitchen founder Deb Perelman said that her tall, fluffy buttermilk pancake recipe was her platonic ideal. It's actually from "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook," Perelman explains in her blog post. The buttermilk "griddle cakes" are "tall and fluffy and stayed that way indefinitely; they were good an hour later from a warm oven, the leftovers were good microwaved on a school morning, and they were good cold schmeared with a little jam," Perelman explains.

These perfect pancakes are thick enough to act as the foundation for blueberries or chocolate chips, yet don't require you to separate eggs because "nobody should ever have to separate eggs before 9 a.m. on a weekend," according to Perelman.

Plus they don't call for copious amounts of butter, any vinegar, or cornstarch. These are good old classic flapjacks, made with a bit of butter and sugar, one egg, flour, buttermilk, baking soda, vanilla, and salt.

She also loves her strawberry cornmeal griddle cakes and the chocolate buckwheat pancakes in her new cookbook, "Smitten Kitchen Keepers."

The Pancake Recipe That Made Smitten Kitchen Switch

But while on tour to promote that book, Perelman joined the Free Library of Philadelphia for a live author event and revealed that Allrecipes may just be home to her new go-to hotcakes.

"There are so many recipes for pancakes, and there are different philosophies. I know that some people like them bigger and softer, and some people like them thicker and more tangy," she said. "I think there is a pancake for everyone."

For many years, those tall, fluffy cakes on her site have been the morning MVP, Perelman confirmed, "but then I did this project for Allrecipes a few months ago."

Good Old-Fashioned Pancakes

In honor of our 25th anniversary, our editors asked Perelman to make the most popular pancake recipe on Allrecipes.com: Good Old-Fashioned Pancakes. Fans rave about this recipe being "perfect every time," "a family favorite," and "fluffy and better than the boxed brand." This one recipe has raked in 14,000 five-star reviews to date, and Perelman seems to agree.

Diner-style, easy to stack sky-high, and asking for "no fancy ingredients, I made them a whole bunch of times…and now, I've been cheating on my pancakes," Perelman admitted.

So if you're seeking a new tested-and-true, beloved breakfast recipe, follow Smitten Kitchen's lead and try our Good Old-Fashioned Pancakes. Then up the ante even more and crown them with one (or more) of these tasty topping ideas that go beyond syrup.