My easy hack for berry or chocolate pancakes goes against popular cooking advice, but they always turn out perfectly fluffy

• I make or order pancakes at least 10 times a month — sometimes multiple times a day. 
• As I've gotten more creative with my pancake-making, I've self-corrected when things don't turn out as well as I think they can.
• My hack for pancake accoutrements was built out of a three-pronged issue: I would wind up with an uneven cook, the mix-ins weren't always evenly-distributed, and juicy blueberries would explode onto my clothes when I bit them.
• Now, I always place my mix-ins onto the batter after I've poured it in the pan, and I always slice them as thin as possible to ensure an even cook.
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I love pancakes. Whether I'm out at a diner or at home on the weekend, I am always in the mood for a well-crafted pancake. Even though my love is real, it's somewhat conditional: There needs to be something inside the fluffy golden pancake. 

My go-to is usually chocolate chips, but if I have berries on hand I love to make a fully-loaded, chocolate-and-berry stack.

Reading recipes online, there are a few different strategies for adding accessories to your pancakes. Some instruct cooks to add the mix-ins to the batter before spooning it onto a griddle, but I prefer to keep all components separate until it's time for them to hit the pan. 

Adding the goods after I've heard the batter sizzle allows me to have control over how many chocolate chips or blueberries make it into each pancake, and it lets me make sure I get a chocolatey morsel and acidic berry burst in every bite.

There's another key component to my overly strategic approach to pancakery: I try and flatten the berries as much as possible before placing them on a dollop of batter. 

I've tried both whole berries and sliced, and there's no question in my mind that sliced is the way to go. When I leave the berry whole and flip the pancake, the berry — which is typically protruding from the uncooked top-side of the batter — lands on the griddle first, forcing the batter to sort of drip onto the hot pan. 

It makes for a weird consistency and the pancake doesn't fluff up the way it does without any interfering additions. The pancake also doesn't cook evenly. Plus, whole blueberries make for a messy and explosive eating situation.

Cutting blueberries in half, strawberries into thin slices, and flattening out flexible raspberries allows the batter to swallow up the berry and seamlessly cook on both sides. 

Try it out for yourself and see the difference. 

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