The Surprising Ingredient to Make Your Pancakes Fluffier

If pancakes are your Saturday morning go-to, you may be hesitant to try out a new recipe. It’s hard to improve on a classic, after all, but food writer Josh Scherer has a cooking tip that he promises will take your breakfast to fluffy new heights.

The secret to light, airy pancakes, Scherer tells Thrillist, can be found in a can of your favorite beer. The creator of the blog Culinary Bro-Down realized the ingredient’s potential while watching the Food Network. He saw a chef add seltzer to their pancake batter and wondered if he could do the same with whatever light beer he had lying around.

When you add a carbonated beverage to pancake batter, whether it’s seltzer or beer, those bubbles act as a leavening agent, creating a texture that’s fluffy rather than dense. Pancake purists should probably stick with seltzer if they don’t want to muddle their recipe too much, but Scherer says that mixing in beer will give your pancakes a jolt of malty flavor.

There’s another reason why beer makes a great pancake ingredient: It’s usually on hand after a night of partying, which also happens to be the ideal time to whip up a big breakfast to soothe your hangover.

You can go to Thrillist for Scherer’s full recipe for Cap’N Crunch pancakes with malt glaze, or you can find it in The Culinary Bro-Down Cookbook.