Tell me more ×
Seasoned Advice is a question and answer site for professional and amateur chefs. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 6 down vote favorite

We've been experimenting with using almond milk as a substitute for actual milk in my household. The biggest failure so far has been with pancakes. The pancakes taste okay, but they are far stickier in the pan than batter made with milk, scorch more easily, and don't brown well. What can I do to get a more satisfactory pancake with almond milk?

share|improve this question
1  
Have you also removed/replaced butter in the batter? – overslacked Mar 10 '11 at 5:16
2  
are you just trying to leave out the dairy altogether? or do you only want to use almond milk? Soymilk cooks much closer to real milk in this application although it's not a one for one replacement. – sarge_smith Mar 10 '11 at 6:07
@sarge_smith I just happen to have almond milk in the fridge and no dairy milk. – philosodad Mar 10 '11 at 21:57
@overslacked - I'm still using butter in the batter, if I switched to oil I can switch to sesame, olive, or canola. – philosodad Mar 10 '11 at 21:58
1  
You might find that thinning it down with water helps, worth trying on a couple if the situation comes around again. – Orbling Mar 12 '11 at 22:03
show 3 more comments

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I use almond milk as a milk replacement, almost exclusively. I was about to say when I made pancakes with almond milk they turned out fine, when I realized I made Buttermilk pancakes instead of just regular pancakes. I compared recipes for normal and buttermilk and noted that there was far less milk called for in the Buttermilk recipe (makes sense).

In short: you may try finding a recipe that does not call for so much milk, such as a buttermilk pancake recipe.

For reference, the recipes I compared had 1 1/4 cups of milk in the original recipe versus 1/4 cup in the Buttermilk recipe.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

Have you considered using soy milk? I used soy milk for making my pancakes this year for the first time and they worked out great. I followed this recipe from Delia Smith -http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/basicpancakeswithsuga_66226

The just opted to use soy milk and used oil instead of butter. My partner couldn't notice any difference in taste compared to previous years. Although I didn't try one that wasn't flavoured with lemon and brown sugar.

Also, I've found that generally if you leave pancakes in the pan a little longer than you think necessary before flipping they come away from the bottom of the pan far easier, especially if using a non-stick pan.

share|improve this answer
2  
While I agree that soy milk is probably a better choice, the question did specifically ask how to improve the results with almond milk, not for other substitutions. Generally those types of responses get posted as comments. – Aaronut♦ Mar 10 '11 at 16:29
2  
Fair point but this answer does offer a pragmatic suggestion for a milk-substitute recipe. As there are, as yet, no other answers then surely this answer is better than nothing for the OP? – David Neale Mar 11 '11 at 20:43
Not really. Almond milk is what is in my refrigerator. – philosodad Mar 13 '11 at 1:08
Although oil instead of butter did help a lot. – philosodad Mar 13 '11 at 13:58
I wrote my suggestion under the impression it might be helpful for future reference if you weren't getting on with almond milk. – nixy Mar 13 '11 at 17:47

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.