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What purpose does adding oil/butter to thin pancake batter serve?

Seasoned Advice Asked by mfox on July 29, 2021

While I understand that adding melted butter or oil to thick, American-style pancakes improves the texture/crumb of the pancake, I have been wondering what the impact is on thin pancakes. Here are some example recipes of the style of pancake I mean: one, two, three (interestingly this third link is a vegan recipe and calls for the most oil by far).

I’ve read in some places that the main reason is to reduce the chances of the pancake sticking to the pan – but this seems easily avoided with the right equipment and technique anyway.

So what function is butter/oil serving in these recipes? Is it still a textural thing, as with thick pancakes (and if so, how would the texture be different with or without the oil)? Is it about the non-stick issue? Or is it just a flavour thing? Given the massive variance in amounts of oil I’ve seen added to otherwise similar recipes for this style of pancake, it would be useful to understand what function the butter/oil is truly serving.

2 Answers

In my experience (having tried oil-free pancakes for health purposes) the pancakes made without fat are much drier compared to the moist pancakes made with oil or butter. So the case here as with most baked goods is that the fat helps produce a lighter and more flavourful result. I suspect the vegan recipe uses the most oil to replace some of the action of the eggs.

Answered by the real deal on July 29, 2021

it's used mainly for 2 purposes the first being flavour (if u're making sweet crepes,as we call them in europe, better to use butter: if u're making savoury u can replace the butter with olive oil to give an aromatic note) and the second being elasticity and "bounciness".

Answered by Simona on July 29, 2021

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