These famous pancakes make people wait for hours in line but don't have to: Check the viral recipe

Economic Times

2 days ago

Synopsis
Golden Diner in Manhattan's Chinatown became famous for its pancakes after a TikTok video sparked huge crowds, with people willing to wait hours to try chef Sam Yoo's unique creation. Combining classic diner flavors with innovative techniques, these yeast-risen buttermilk pancakes are topped with a special maple-honey syrup, salted butter, and berry compote.
NYT News Service Golden diner Pancakes. The chef Sam Yoo drenches his pancakes with maple-honey syrup and tops them with a berry compote and salted maple-honey butter. Food styled by Susie Theodorou. (Christopher Simpson/The New York Times) NEW YORK -- A few weeks ago, Golden Diner, a restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown, began taking reservations for weekend brunch, years after the wait for a table could stretch to two, sometimes three, hours. But the crowds have not diminished. Everyone is willing to stand in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge for chef Sam Yoo's pancakes. In 2019, Yoo opened Golden Diner, where his takes on classic diner dishes weave in playful Asian inflections like a highway zipper merge done right. Diners regularly filled the seats at the counter and small tables along it, and then, in October 2023, someone posted the pancakes on TikTok, then others did as well. The masses arrived, lines outside grew, sales jumped. What Yoo thought might be a blip turned into a pivotal moment. "I never created the pancakes to go viral or for the Instagram crowd," he said. "As a chef, I needed them to be beautiful because you eat with your eyes first, but I wanted to know, 'Is it balanced? Is it familiar but refreshing in taste and concept?'" After researching and testing countless batches of pancakes, he landed on what has become a new classic. Along with the internet rise of the Golden Diner pancakes came copycat recipes. Yoo declined to share his version until now. It's a game-changing one that combines all the nostalgia of diner pancakes with innovative techniques for a dish that makes your eyes widen at first taste. Yoo cooks a yeast-risen buttermilk batter in individual skillets to give them height like Japanese souffle pancakes and a perfect roundness like those in the flapjack emoji. As soon as he stacks them on a plate, he drenches them with buttery maple-honey syrup, then tops them with salted maple-honey butter, both inspired by Korean honey-butter chips and reminiscent of Werther's hard candies. A berry compote completes the meal with its fresh tang. To fully experience Golden Diner pancakes is to make -- then eat -- all four components together. No single step is difficult, but the execution takes some coordination and delivers the high that restaurant cooks get during brunch service. Yoo said he is still recognized as "Mr. Pancake," but now spends most of his time in midtown Manhattan, where he's the chef and owner of the new Golden Hof -- Korean Bar & Grill. His Golden Diner chef de cuisine, Danny Ugolick, oversees the kitchen downtown, which now revolves around pancake production. On Saturdays and Sundays, Ugolick expects about 350 diners for brunch, which means about 280 pancake orders. Each order includes two pancakes, so to turn out about 1,120 pancakes over two days, the cooks prep 60 quarts of berry compote once a week; 60 pounds of maple-honey butter every other day; 35 quarts of maple-honey syrup daily; and 100 quarts of batter twice a day. They can cook only eight pancakes at a time while also making other brunch dishes. "It's mainly about time management, risk management," Ugolick said, but it's far simpler at home: Because you're not cooking hundreds of orders, you can start the batter and, while it rests, make the butter, syrup and berry compote. And since you're probably cooking with just one skillet, but want to serve everything at once, you finish the pancakes in the oven. Yoo doesn't include any butter in his batter and cooks it in an ungreased nonstick skillet so it develops a dry crust that softens when soaked with the syrup. At the restaurant, the batter is browned on the bottom, then slid under a salamander, a professional broiler, to cook through before the round is flipped. At home, you can brown both sides of a single pancake, then slide it onto a rack-lined pan in the oven so the center cooks through and the outsides stay crackly as you work. The syrup, which has a savory depth from soy sauce, requires only whisking, as does the butter. The compote is nearly as easy. To retain the berries' freshness as they thicken, Yoo cooks them hot and fast with sugar and cornstarch. Everyday pancakes, these are not. Ugolick isn't on TikTok and still hasn't seen the videos that transformed his work life. "I'll be very honest -- I've never ever been a pancake person," he said, but added that this recipe "has opened people's eyes to what a pancake can be." When Yoo was creating the restaurant's menu, he wanted waffles, but pancakes made more sense logistically for the small kitchen. He never thought they'd be the hit they are. "It's all a little crazy," he said. They're so good that they are, in fact, worth hourslong waits in New York -- and definitely worth making at home everywhere.
--Recipe: Golden Diner Pancakes
This game-changing pancake recipe from Sam Yoo, the chef and an owner of Golden Diner in Manhattan's Chinatown, combines all the nostalgia of diner pancakes with innovative techniques for a dish that makes your eyes widen at first taste. Yoo cooks a yeast-risen buttermilk batter in individual skillets to give them height like Japanese soufflé pancakes and a perfect roundness like those in the flapjack emoji. As soon as he stacks them on a plate, he drenches them with buttery maple-honey syrup, then tops them with salted honey-maple butter, both inspired by Korean honey-butter chips and reminiscent of Werther's hard candies. A berry compote completes the meal with its fresh tang. Recipe from Sam Yoo Adapted by Genevieve Ko Yield: 4 to 6 large pancakes with toppings (3 to 6 servings) Total time: 1 hour, 45 minutes Ingredients: For the Pancake Batter: 2 1/4 teaspoons/7 grams active dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce packet) 2 cups/260 grams all-purpose flour, divided 1 1/4 cups/300 grams buttermilk 2 tablespoons sugar 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon fine salt 2 large eggs 1/4 cup/60 grams canola oil or other neutral-tasting oil For the Maple-Honey Butter: 1/2 cup/113 grams unsalted butter, softened 3 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup 3/4 teaspoon fine salt For the Maple-Honey Syrup: 1/2 cup/113 grams unsalted butter 1/3 cup/100 grams honey 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon fine salt For the Berry Compote: 14 ounces/400 grams mixed berries, such as blueberries, raspberries and stemmed strawberries, cut to the same size as the small berries 1/3 cup/67 grams sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch Preparation: 1. Start the pancake batter: In a small bowl, whisk the yeast with 1 cup flour. In a small saucepan, heat the buttermilk with 1/4 cup/60 grams water over medium-low heat, stirring often, until lukewarm (about 100 degrees), about 5 minutes. Pour the buttermilk into the flour and whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour to create a preferment. This will give the pancakes a deeper flavor and some additional rise. 2. Meanwhile, make the maple-honey butter: In a medium bowl, whisk the butter, honey, syrup and salt until smooth. Keep at room temperature if using within a few hours. Otherwise, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Soften the butter and whisk it again before serving. 3. Make the maple-honey syrup: Combine the butter, honey, syrup, soy sauce and salt in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low, whisking often, until the butter melts completely. While whisking, add 1 1/2 tablespoons water. Keep whisking until emulsified, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting to keep warm. 4. Make the berry compote: In a large bowl, gently mix the berries, sugar and cornstarch until the berries are evenly coated. Heat a large, deep skillet over high until very hot. A drop of water sprinkled on the pan should immediately sizzle away. Add the berry mixture and cook, stirring once in a while, until the blueberries look like they're about to pop, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. 5. Finish the pancakes: Heat the oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center. Set a metal rack in a sheet pan and place on the center oven rack. 6. After the preferment has proofed for an hour, whisk the remaining 1 cup flour with the sugar, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and oil until smooth. Scrape the preferment into the egg mixture, then add the dry ingredients. Gently stir with the whisk until no traces of dry ingredients remain. It's OK if the batter is lumpy. 7. Heat one or two 7- to 8-inch nonstick skillets (5- to 6- inches across the bottom) or extremely well-seasoned cast-iron pans over medium until very hot. Nonstick works best because you won't be greasing the pans at all. Fill each pan with batter to about 1/3-inch depth. Smooth the top to ensure the batter reaches the edges of the pan and forms a nice round. Cook until the bottom is crisp and evenly golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes, turning down the heat if the bottom browns too quickly. Flip and cook until the other side crisps and browns evenly, 1 to 3 minutes, tucking in the edges to give the pancake a nice dome. 8. Transfer the pancake from the skillet to the rack-lined pan in the oven for the centers to cook through, 2 to 5 minutes. To check, poke a paring knife in the middle and peek to see if any wet batter remains. Repeat with the remaining batter, reheating the pan between pancakes. You can serve the pancakes as they're done or keep the earlier batches in the oven until all of the pancakes are ready. 9. To serve, center one or two hot pancakes on serving plates and evenly drench with the maple-honey syrup right away. Spoon the berry compote on top, then scoop maple-honey butter over the berries (see Tip). Serve immediately. Tips: At Golden Diner, the butter is formed into the football shape known as quenelles. You can do the same if you want: Use one spoon to scoop a round of soft maple-honey butter along its long side, then run another spoon of the same size against the first spoon to shape the butter into a football. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.