Chez Ma Tante Pancakes (Clarified Butter Shallow-Fry)

It is the recipe Chez Ma Tante's chefs published through NBC Today, and it is intentional. Standard pancake recipes use 1–1.5 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour — about 6 to 8 times less than what this recipe calls for. The effect is extreme lift in the batter: the interior puffs dramatically and sets custardy rather than spongy. This works because the interior is being cooked by the hot fat from below (shallow-frying), not just steam from a griddle — the batter doesn't need to set primarily through evaporation. The acid-alkaline reaction creates enormous gas expansion, and the hot ghee fixes that structure quickly around the outside while the interior stays soft. You should not reduce it. The result won't taste like baking powder — the lemon zest and the ghee dominate. Do not confuse 2½ tablespoons with 2½ teaspoons: the tablespoon amount is correct and matters.

Clarified butter is butter with the milk solids and water removed, leaving only pure butterfat. Because whole butter is about 16–18% water and milk solids, it burns at 302°F — too low for shallow-frying pancakes properly. Clarified butter (or ghee, which is clarified further) has a smoke point of around 450–485°F, which is what creates the signature dark, shatteringly crisp edges without burning bitterness. To make it: melt 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter over low heat in a small saucepan, undisturbed, for 10–12 minutes. White foam rises to the top — skim it off. A milky layer settles to the bottom. Gently pour the clear golden liquid through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a jar; leave the milky sediment behind. What you have is clarified butter. Indian ghee (widely available at grocery stores next to the cooking oils) is the same thing taken one step further — the milk solids are browned before removal, adding a nutty flavor that pairs very well with this recipe. Regular butter will not give you the same results: the dark crispy edge will burn unpleasantly before it crisps properly.

Darker than you think. The signature Chez Ma Tante pancake edge is deep brown going on nearly black — the color of a very dark caramel or the outer ring of a crepe cooked on high heat. It looks like it went wrong. The correct visual cue: the edges have moved inward from the pan and set firm, and the color has gone past golden-amber to a deep mahogany brown. On a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, this takes 2.5 to 3 full minutes. If you flip earlier (when the edges are still golden-pale), you will get a standard pancake that is just fine but not the Chez Ma Tante effect. The crisp exterior is what makes the contrast with the custardy interior work. Trust the timing and resist flipping early.

Yes, but with a trade-off. A nonstick pan works fine at medium heat, but its temperature ceiling is lower than cast iron — many nonstick coatings begin degrading above 450–500°F, which is the range where the clarified butter and pancake edges develop their best crispness. On nonstick, the edges will be somewhat crispy and lightly colored but not the shatteringly dark version a cast-iron produces. If you use nonstick, keep the heat at medium, use the full ghee amount, and accept a slightly softer edge. Cast iron is genuinely worth it here — it holds heat through each batch without cooling when cold batter hits the pan, which is why the edges develop consistently. A well-seasoned 10- or 12-inch cast-iron skillet is the right tool.

Chez Ma Tante means 'my aunt's house' in French — a nod to French-Canadian home cooking as much as to French bistro cuisine. The menu at the restaurant blends classic brasserie technique (proper pan sauces, stock-based braises, butter-forward cooking) with the comfort-food register of Canadian cooking: hearty, ingredient-forward, uncomplicated. The pancakes represent that overlap: they use a French technique (shallow-frying in clarified fat, similar to how French crêpes are made in a butter-coated pan) applied to a North American breakfast staple. The restaurant is not doing 'fusion' in any formal sense — it is a neighborhood bistro with a clear point of view about fat and technique. The Canadian reference is more cultural atmosphere than a specific set of dishes.

Chez Ma Tante serves them immediately, and immediate is the right answer — the crispness lasts about 5 minutes before the edges begin to soften from steam. For a group, the best approach is to have everyone at the table before you start cooking, then serve in rounds: two or three pancakes per round, straight from pan to plate. If you must hold them, place them in a single layer on a wire rack set over a sheet pan in a 200°F oven — do not stack them (stacking traps steam and softens the crust). Even so, the held pancakes will lose some crispness after 15 minutes. For toppings: the restaurant keeps it simple — maple syrup, crème fraîche, and fresh fruit. A light drizzle of good maple syrup is all the recipe needs; the ghee-fried exterior already has enormous richness and flavor.