Dough is thick and firm enough to knead and shape by hand, as with bread or pastry, while batter is thin and pourable, as with pancakes or a coating for frying. A simple memory hook is that you knead dough but you pour batter.
The core difference
Dough is a thick, kneadable mixture, while batter is a thinner, pourable one.
- dough — a thick, soft mixture of flour and liquid used for baking bread or pastry: she kneaded the dough before letting it rise.
- batter — a liquid mixture of flour, egg, and milk used in baking or to coat food before frying: she whisked up a batter for the pancakes.
How to tell them apart
The clearest way to tell them apart is by what you do with each one: dough is stiff enough to knead, roll, and shape with your hands, while batter is loose enough to pour or whisk, and is often used to coat food before frying. If a recipe has you pouring the mixture into a tin or pan, it is a batter; if you are working it with your hands on a floured surface, it is a dough.
The mix-up mostly shows up with pancakes and similar bakes, where people sometimes call a thin pancake mixture “dough” out of habit, even though its pourable consistency makes it a batter. Dough also has an informal, unrelated meaning as slang for money, which batter does not share.
