Making Pancakes Together (Part 2)

Becca turned to look at the ingredients and tools that were spread out on the table. "So where do we begin?"

"Well, first you need to crack the eggs and put them in the bowl. For the 7 of us that will be having breakfast, I would go with 3 eggs just to be safe."

Becca scrunched her nose. "Cracking the eggs, huh? Which one of these tools are for cracking eggs?"

I had to fight the urge to laugh. "There are no specific tools for cracking eggs. The easiest way is to break it on the edge of the table or on the edge of the bowl itself."

Becca looked between both the edge of the table and the bowl with uncertainty. "Which one is best?"

"The table is more stable because when you hit something against it, it won't move the table, but then you might get some of the egg on the table which is dirty. The bowl is more sanitary because the bowl is going to have the eggs in it anyways, but the bowl can slip when you are hitting the egg against if you are not careful. Which would you prefer?"

Becca thought about it for a second before coming up with an answer. "Can you hold the bowl stable for me, so there will be no draw back?"

"Of course I'm happy to help."

I grabbed the bowl and waited for Becca to crack the eggs.

"Go for it."

She picked up an egg and looked at it for a second before turning towards the bowl and slamming the egg on the edge. The egg exploded with the contents flying all over the table. Becca's eyes opened in shock.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry Nick! I thought the egg would be a lot stronger than it actually is…"

This time, I couldn't help chuckling. "You really went at it full force haha! You only have to tap it lightly to crack the shell. It's my fault for not explaining it to you properly."

Becca looked at her hands with a frown. "The inside of an egg is so sticky and gross..."

"You have never seen raw egg white and yolk before? It is slimy, but if you crack an egg carefully, you shouldn't get too much on you. I usually wash my hands if I ever get some raw egg on me because it could have germs. Go wash your hands, then try cracking another egg."

While Becca was washing her hands, I cleaned the bowl that had a mixture of raw egg and the shell mixed together as well as the messy table.

Becca walked back looking reluctant, so I encouraged her. "Hey Becca, don't worry about it. Learning is all about trial and error. Now that you know, you won't make the same mistake again. I already planned for us to have some bumps along the way."

Becca didn't let the failure bring her down long because she was eager to learn, "Ok, I'll nail it this time."

This time she tapped the egg on the edge of the bowl lightly and proper got all of the egg in the bowl. Becca cheered happily, "alright! That's more like it!"

I looked at the contents of the bowl and gave her a quick reminder. "The one thing to be careful about once you get used to cracking eggs is that sometimes a little bit of the shell will get into the bowl. See that little white piece there? It's not a problem because we can just fish it out with a spoon, but it is good to be aware of because smaller or multiple pieces of shell can be annoying to take out."

Becca nodded, "I see, it ended up falling in when I was pouring the egg in, not when I was cracking it. I'll pay more attention."

Becca quickly got the hang of it and cracked the other two eggs with no problem.

"See Becca, you pick things up fast. Good job."

"Thanks, Nick. So what's next?"

"We just have to put the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix it all together with the whisk to make the batter."

"Really that simple?"

"Yep, I told you making pancakes wasn't too difficult."

Becca put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, and butter into the bowl and started mixing.

"You need to mix it until all the chunks of flour are dissolved and the batter is smooth. The thickness should be to a level where the batter drips off the whisk but is still a little clumpy."

"Ok, just let me know when to stop…"

Mixing the batter is very simple, so after a few minutes it looked ready to go.

"Alright, time for the most fun part of making pancakes!"

I grabbed a skillet and spatula and walked towards the nearest stove. I put the heat to medium-high and put down the skillet. Then I handed the spatula to Becca.

"Now you have to scoop the batter onto the skillet to start cooking it. As long as you pour it in one spot, it will turn into a circle. It should be about the same size as the pancakes I made you last time."

Becca eyeballed it and poured her first pancake. It was a little big, but it wasn't too far off.

"Ok, now after about a minute or two, you have to flip it to the other side of the pancake with the spatula. You can know when it is ready to flip by using the spatula to look at the side that is being cooked. Once it is golden brown, it is read to flip."

Becca tried to look at the side being cooked immediately, but when she put the spatula on the side, all she touched was the wet batter.

"It takes a little while for the wet batter to cook enough that you can even lift the pancake up and see the side that is being cooked. Give it a minute and try again. Also, the side that hasn't been cooked will start to have little bubbles show up when it is about ready to be flipped."