Recipe: Fluffy Golden Diner Pancakes Recipe »
These fluffy golden pancakes must be tried at least once! They’re based on the famous Golden Diner Pancakes in Manhattan, New York and are unbelievably fluffy and light with an almost cupcake like texture. They come with an incredible honey maple butter sauce that has a secret ingredient that changes everything. I’ll also show you the secret way to cook these to give them that perfectly smooth burnished finish that Golden Diner doesn’t share. Try these iconic pancakes from the comfort of your own home!
About These Fluffy Golden Diner Pancakes
I have wanted to try these Golden Diner pancakes in New York for ages. These pancakes are fluffy, smooth and burnished on top and come drenched in a honey maple butter sauce. The secret ingredient to making the butter sauce so incredible moreish is…soy sauce! Yep, that’s it! You use just 1 teaspoon of it but it tastes so good. It’s like adding salt to a caramel, it brings out the flavour of everything (except soy sauce is even more complex than salt). The butter sauce is inspired by Korean honey butter potato chips. Honey butter is one of my favourite flavour combos: think Honey Butter Toast or Honey Butter Fried Chicken. Forget flying all the way to New York or queuing for 3 hours to get your fix of these deliciously fluffy pancakes.
These pancakes are different to other ones. For starters, while they look like Japanese souffle pancakes but the texture is almost like a cake. By themselves they have a dry, almost cornbread-like texture to them but once you add that incredible maple honey butter mixture then you get why these are such a hit item. And thanks to the people at Golden Diner, they shared the recipe on the New York Times. But I found there were some helpful hints that you do need to ensure that they look just like the real thing.
Tips For Making Fluffy Golden Diner Pancakes
1 – The batter uses two types of raising agent: instant dried yeast and bicarb. The yeast gives it a nice fluffiness and you make the poolish or pre-ferment one hour before and then add the rest of the ingredients in. This gives the pancakes a really nice flavour.
2 – If you don’t have buttermilk, just add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk to curdle it. Voila, you have instant buttermilk!
3 – You do need a good non stick pan or a really well seasoned cast iron pan to make these. Make sure that the pan handle can go into the oven. The pan needs to be 20cm/8inches in diameter at the top and around 14cm/5.5inches on the base. This is non stick frying pan I used which worked perfectly. You can’t add butter or oil to the pan or you won’t get that smooth finish to them. Don’t get me wrong – they’ll still taste amazing so I don’t necessarily advocate buying a new non stick pan for it but if you happen to have a 20cm/8inch non stick pan, use it here.
4 – I wasn’t able to replicate the smooth top until I found a video by Omar Farah that explained that the key to the smooth, burnished surface is to bake the pancake in the oven! Golden Diner gave instructions on how to do this on the stovetop but I found it wasn’t quite as perfect looking as it was when it was baked! But if you don’t want to bake it in the oven (say if the pan’s handle can’t go in the oven) you can also do this on the stovetop (I’ve shared instructions for this method too).
5 – Making the honey maple butter is easy as long as your butter is very soft. Room temperature butter isn’t always soft enough, especially if it is winter or cold where you are. I usually microwave the butter on 10% power to make sure that it is soft enough. If a butter knife slides through it easily without pressure then it is the correct consistency and can take on the honey and maple syrup without curdling.
6 – If you’re finding the butter and honey won’t emulsify, microwave the butter mixture on the very lowest setting (10%) in 20 second bursts until it becomes very soft. Once it is, I promise it will combine together very easily.
7 – To make quenelles, let the butter sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or so just to firm up a little. Then take two tablespoons and scoop from top to bottom going back and forth between spoon. Don’t get too caught up making perfect quenelles – chefs practise for hours to get the perfect quenelle with sharp edges.
8 – For the berry sauce, you can use fresh or frozen berries or you can omit the berry sauce. I definitely recommend some lemon zest though to cut through everything!
Fluffy Golden Diner Pancakes Recipe
Recipe adapted from Sam Yoo from Golden Diner via the NY Times
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour waiting
Cooking time: 16 minutes
Makes 6 thick pancakes
Ingredients Needed
- 4.5 teaspoons/14g instant dried yeast
- 520g/18ozs plain all purpose flour, divided in two
- 600ml/21flozs buttermilk
- 4 tablespoons/60g/2oz caster or superfine sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons bicarb
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs, large, room temperature
- 120ml/4flozs oil
For Honey Butter Sauce
- 226g/2 sticks butter, very soft
- 6 tablespoons/120g/4ozs honey
- 4 tablespoons/80g/2.8flozs maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
Berry Sauce
- 400g/14ozs mixed berries, fresh or frozen
- 70g/2.5ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons cornflour/fine cornstarch
To serve
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest for each pancake
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 – Whisk together the yeast and half of the flour. Heat buttermilk to 37C/98.6F and whisk into the flour mixture. Cover and allow to sit for 1 hour. It will become bubbly.
Step 2 – While it is rising make the honey butter sauce. Add the butter, honey, maple syrup, soy sauce and salt together into a large bowl and whisk until smooth. If the mixture doesn’t emulsify together, heat the butter gently on 10% power in the microwave in 20 second increments until it becomes soft enough to whisk together easily. Set aside at room temperature.
Step 3 – Then make the berry sauce. Mix the berries, sugar and cornstarch together and then add to a small saucepan on medium heat (you don’t need to add water). Stir and simmer gently for a couple of minutes until a sauce is formed and then remove from heat.
Step 4 – Once the batter has had its time, mix in the remaining half of the flour, sugar, bicarb and salt with a spatula. Whisk the eggs with the oil and add this in with the spatula, mixing until just combined. Little lumps like above are fine.
Step 5 a- Preheat your oven to 230C/428F fan forced. Place your oven proof non stick frying pan in the oven for 5 minutes to make sure that it is hot. (Caution: be careful when using a hot pan and make sure to wrap handle in a tea towel to avoid accidentally picking up the handle with your hands!). Pour a sixth of the batter into the hot pan and bake for 9 minutes until golden on top. Flip upside down and place on a plate.
Step 5b – Stovetop directions: Place pan to heat on medium high then reduce heat to low. Place batter in the pan and cook pancake for 3 minutes on one side until bubbles appear on the top, then gently lift and flip it over the other side and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.
Step 6 – Place two pancakes on a plate. Shape quenelles using two tablespoons using the soft butter and then melt the rest of the butter in a small saucepan on low heat to form a sauce (whisk together before serving). Drench the pancakes with the butter sauce and add the quenelle of butter and berry compote on the side or on top.
Note: these pancakes are thick so I usually serve them as single pancakes as they are so filling!
Personal Note
Although the recipe was shared on the NYTimes website, I found that getting it to be just right proved a bit of a mystery and I wondered if they had given the full recipe. I made four batches of these pancakes just to get them juust right because I was determined to solve the mystery of these pancakes and after a lot of testing and research I think this is it!
We recently had another mystery that had us baffled. During our recent holiday we visited a few countries. First up was Singapore to see my family and then we were flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia for a Mekong Cruise that would finish in Vietnam. On our second night in Singapore we were sitting at a restaurant. Towards the end of our meal they sat a solo diner next to us. She was also having the degustation – sometimes you can’t help but overhear conversations between her and wait staff and apparently she was taking herself out for a last meal before flying out the next morning. We exchanged pleasantries but we were about to leave so we were already packing up. “She’ll be there til after midnight,” Mr NQN whispered as we left at 10:30pm while her second course was being delivered.
The next day we were flying out to Siem Reap early in the morning and we saw her at the airport. All I could think was that the poor thing mustn’t have had a lot of sleep as it was such an early flight.
Once we arrived in Siem Reap we relaxed and stayed at our hotel. Then it was time to go to the bar for a drink and then dinner. I took a seat at the bar and looked to my left. “That’s the lady next to us last night!” I whispered to Mr NQN. “She’s got to be going on the cruise,” he said. He was determined to find out what was going on and to solve the mystery of why she kept popping up in the same place.
Mr NQN asked her if she was at the Raffles Singapore the night before and after a few seconds she remembered us. He asked if she was heading on the cruise too. It turned out that she wasn’t, she just happened to be on a holiday of the same spots and we happened to see her three times! We wished her a nice holiday but honestly what a coincidence!
So tell me Dear Reader, would you have wanted to know what was going on? Do things like this ever happen to you?
Published on 2025-08-17 by Lorraine Elliott.
www.notquitenigella.com (Article Sourced Website)
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