Buttermilk Pancakes

Method

1. whisk1 min
   dry, room temperature
   flour + sugar + baking powder + baking soda + salt, thirty seconds of real whisking — this is the only chance to distribute the soda evenly, and a pocket of undispersed soda tastes soapy and bitter in the finished pancake
2. whisk2 min
   separate bowl
   buttermilk + egg + melted butter (+ vanilla), until uniform. Let the melted butter cool below scalding first or it will cook the egg into threads; cold buttermilk will seize it into flecks, which is cosmetic rather than fatal
3. fold1 min
   barely combined, lumpy
   wet into dry, about ten strokes with a spatula — stop while flour streaks and pea-sized lumps are still visible. Every extra stroke develops more gluten, and gluten is what turns a tender pancake rubbery and tunnels the crumb. The lumps hydrate on their own during the rest; a smooth batter is already overmixed
4. rest10 min
   covered, room temperature
   batter, undisturbed. The flour finishes absorbing liquid and the gluten you did develop relaxes, so the batter thickens and mounds instead of spreading. Do not stir it again — the surface will be domed with CO2 bubbles from the soda meeting the buttermilk's acid, and stirring knocks them out. Do not push past 20 minutes either, or that reaction is spent before the batter hits heat
5. fry12 min
   medium, 190°C / 375°F griddle, buttered
   1/3-cup pools of batter, spaced apart (+ blueberries dropped onto the wet tops rather than stirred in, so they do not bleed grey through the crumb). Cook until the edges dull and set and the surface bubbles stop closing over, about 2–3 minutes, then flip once. The second side takes half as long and the pancake is done when it springs back — press it or flip it twice and you crush the gas cells the leavening just built. Hold finished pancakes in a single layer, not stacked, or trapped steam softens the crust