Tips and Tricks

Should You Spoon, Pour, or Scoop Your Pancake Mix

People enjoy making our Krusteaz^® pancakes in different ways. Our package directions say to measure the mix by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off, but we know that not everyone does this. Some people pour the mix directly from the box into the measuring cup while others use the measuring cup to scoop the mix out of the bag. Others don’t use measuring cups at all but that is a whole other story.

Is there a difference between making your pancake these different ways?

Here at the Krusteaz^® Test Kitchen, we set up a mini experiment with Krusteaz^® Buttermilk Pancake Mix to find out!

Pancake Mix Variables We Tested:

Spoon Pancake: Mix was spooned into measuring cup and leveled off (package directions)
Pour Pancake: Mix was poured from the package directly into the measuring cup
Scoop Pancake: Mix was scooped from the package with the measuring cup

Our Method

For the Spoon Pancake, we followed the on-the-box prep — 1 cup of mix combined with 2/3 cup cold water. The Pour Pancake and Scoop Pancake batters needed more water to be usable – both used 1 cup of mix with 3/4 cup cold water. The box prep griddle temperature (375°F) and cook times (1-1 ½ min per side) were the same for all pancakes.

What We Compared:

Weight of the mix in 1 cup
Thickness of batter
Height of Pancakes (Stack of 3)
Width of Pancakes

The Results

The Spoon pancake had the lightest weight per cup, thinnest batter, shortest and widest pancake. The Pour pancake struck the middle ground for each area tested. The Scoop pancake had the heaviest weight, thickest batter, tallest and skinniest pancakes.

The Pour pancake mix weight was 23% more than the typical Spoon prep weight; that’s the same as adding in an extra ¼ cup of mix for every 1 cup of Spoon measured mix. The Scoop pancake mix weight was 41% more, about the same as adding in an extra 1/3 cup mix for every 1 cup of Spoon measured mix. Even though these pancakes all turned out a bit different, they all had a great fluffy texture and a delicious buttermilk flavor!

Conclusion: All Methods are Winners!

Whether spooning, scooping, or pouring the mix, you’ll get great Krusteaz^® Buttermilk pancakes! To still get the same pancakes on the box using the other methods, here are our recommendations: