Sourdough has so many advantages. First, it adds a great flavorful dimension to baked goods. Secondly, it is one of the most effective method of reducing phytates in your food. See my post on sourdough bread vs. yeasted bread for more information. Third, it is easy to use. Fourth, it is a very frugal choice.
I wanted to start using sourdough more often because of the above reasons, so I was thrilled when my starter from Fermented Treasures came with some recipes. One in particular intrigued me. It was a recipe for sourdough flapjacks. I changed the recipe around a bit, and also added a longer soaking period, and it is now the recipe we always use for pancakes. It’s definitely a keeper. I have also been playing around with variations to the recipe, so you may see this recipe in a different form soon!
I have always enjoyed the recipe for pancakes from Nourishing Traditions, though I did find it sometimes hard to cook in my stainless steel pan. They would be cooked on the outside and not in the inside. This was a common occurrence with others as well, probably caused by not having heavy duty griddle pans. This recipe has no problems like that, but cooks beautifully (and easily).
Oh, and for those dairy free people out there, this one is easily made dairy free, which is how I make it. If you made a wheat free sourdough starter, you could also easily make this wheat free as well.
Sourdough Pancakes
1 cup of sourdough starter (my starter is fed 3/4 cups of water and one cup of flour, so it’s the thinner type of starter)
2 cups of water
3 1/2 cups of whole grain flour *see note below
3 large eggs
4 tablespoons of maple syrup, honey, maple sugar, or rapadura (optional)
1/4 cup of coconut oil, or melted butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
*This recipe first called for 2 1/2 cups of flour. However, I think my starter became thinner (I was working with a new starter when I developed this recipe) and 3 1/2 cups of flour turned out to be perfect now. I think how much flour you need will depend on how thick your starter is, but if you have a thinner starter, the larger amount will probably work the best.
3 to 24 hours before you want to eat, combine in a large bowl the starter, water, and flour. Make sure that you have plenty of room for this mixture to rise. If it is a very hot day, beware of leaving it too long as it will ferment very quickly. I usually make this up the night before, for breakfast, or the morning of, for dinner. In colder weather, I have done this recipe for up to 24 hours.
After the soaking period, add the rest of the ingredients, and combine well. A whisk is helpful. If you want thinner pancakes you can thin with water (or milk). Drop about 1/4 of a cup of the batter on a lightly oiled hot griddle (over medium to medium-high heat) until the the top is set, and the bottom lightly browned. Flip the pancake and cook until the pancake is lightly browned on the other side. Repeat until all of the batter is used, re-oiling the pan as needed.
Serve with real maple syrup, butter, or a fruit topping and whipped cream.
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I love, love, love sourdough pancakes. Their flavor is simply unsurpassed.
I have just started experimenting with sourdough. I used it in banana bread and will have to try this one. Thanks
How do I make sourdough starter?
I’ve been reading your post for awhile- enjoyed some of your recipes. My children esp liked the raspberry lemon poppy seed muffins. YUM! Oh, and I made them the first time w/out the eggs- still worked but not as good as w/ eggs.
Heather
Mmm, I’ve been making sourdough pancakes for a while now and love them. My recipe seems very similar to yours, except that you don’t add any extra flour- you just use sourdough starter. Obviously if your starter is pretty runny, you’d want to add some flour, but it makes it really easy to just grab some starter (that is at room temp) and make them!
Yum yum yum yum!!!!!! I’m on summer break in 2 days. I can’t wait to try this!
These are great Kimi. Just made them for breakfast this morning. I have been making another sourdough pancake recipe, but I like yours a lot better. Thanks!
Tully Family,
There are some great resources out there. I would check out my post about sourdough where I explain what to look for in a recipe, and go from there. You can easily find many recipes on the internet. I hope to, at some point, make on, taking pictures of each step and post here. But I just don’t have the time or need right now. 🙂
Amy,
How interesting! You will have to give me your recipe! I
Autumn,
I am so glad that you liked them.Thanks for the comment. It’s always appreciated. We have been greatly enjoying them here as well.
Yum! I JUST last week made two sourdough starters (Tully Family, I blogged about them so if you’re looking for a recipe, feel free to check mine out) – one whole wheat and one white – and I’ve been looking for more recipes to use it! These pancakes may be on our menu for this weekend’s breakfast. . . yum!
Thank you again!
Best,
Sarah
These look great! I just got my starter in the mail (New England) and was wondering how well it works to feed it ww instead of the white flour that the instructions call for. Would you be willing to talk about your experience with this? Thanks!
Judy Kay,
I have used whole wheat with very good success. I sometimes use white flour, for ease, because I grind my own whole wheat. So,it’s probably about half and half right now. Hope that helps!
Kimi
So you just do everything the same, feeding it whole wheat sometimes and white other times? That sounds great! Any other tips you can pass on to a sourdough novice?
Thanks!
Thanks, Kimi, for your pancake recipe. I’m new to sourdough baking and still working on getting a satisfactory loaf of bread. This morning’s pancakes, however, surpassed our expectations. Thanks again.
Lee Weller,
Thanks for the comment. I am so glad that you liked the recipe. 🙂 I just made this recipe again tonight, and was once again reminded of how wonderful sourdough pancakes really are!
I once had sourdough pancakes topped with a sourcream sauce or something similar to sourcream. Anyone have a recipe like that?
Thanks
I made these pancakes this past weekend – I loved them, my partner hated them – but he doesn’t appreciate the untamed musky sour flavor of my sourdough in general 🙁
I topped them with some creme fraiche and maple syrup, which was delicious. This might be the sour cream sauce Marty is looking for? I have a fil mjolk culture (similar to piima cream) that I mix with organic pasteurized cream to cold culture the creme fraiche. By cold culture I mean I put it all in a mason jar and leave it on top of the fridge for about a day, then refrigerate – no heat necessary. I got my culture from Fermented Treasures and I have been reusing it for over a year now. I mix it with organic pasteurized cream-top milk to make yogurt, too.
I am going to make these tomorrow morning…with peaches on top! Yummy…thanks for the great posts.
I am so excited to try this recipe. As far as the cooking until done issue, try cast iron. I LOVE all of my cat iron cook ware. I have a great griddle that I use on my gas stove top that cooks flap jacks slow and completely done in the middle. YUM! 🙂
Blessings!
Niki Lou,
I think you are right. My cast iron is really small, so I usually use my stainless steel, which works fine for this recipe. But my mother has a very nice large, cast iron skillet and it works wonderfully!
Wow! These are quite literally the best pancakes I have ever tasted. My whole family loves them.
I have only recently begun to learn about sourdough and its many benefits and uses and pancakes has been one of my family’s favourite ways to use our starter so far. I got a pancake recipe from a local Weston Price chapter leader that is so quick and easy and does NOT require any prep the night before it just uses starter, melted butter or coconut oil, sweetner (honey, maple syrup, rapadura), a couple Tbsps of arrowroot powder (or a small amount of white flour), some baking soda and a couple eggs. It also works wonderfully for waffles if you separate the eggs first and beat the whites until stiff then fold them into the rest of the mix.
Awesome! Sub. 1 cup graham flour and rest whole wheat. Olive oil instead of butter. Egg whites beaten instead of whole egg. Made a crisp light waffle. Waffle night may become a weekly thing!
Thank You!
Our family loves these pancakes – thanks so much!
I really appreciate that I can trust your recipes to come out tasting delicious when I make them! Keep up the great work.
I just made these this morning! Thank you for the recipe, they’re fabulous and the most delicious pancakes I’ve ever made 🙂 Ours is a thicker type of starter, so I really appreciated the note about flour amounts based on starter consistency. You have an incredible blog, thank you and keep doing what you do! Love it!
Allow me to echo other commenters. These are absolutely delicious! I used kamut flour and since my starter is on the thicker side, just 2 1/2 cups. So crisp, loght & flavorful! I’m going to try to make waffles with the batter next. They do yield quite a bit! But I will freeze them between sheets of wax paper and toast in the future!
Best pancakes ever. I made my starter from the directions at Practical Stewardship.
Best pancakes EVAH!!! I have tried tons of pancake recipes, and only one other sourdough recipe. These were so fluffy and light!! The sourdough taste was not overwhelming at all (as it is in my other recipe) and the kids were loving them. I cooked them in coconut oil and topped with pastured butter and Grade B maple syrup. Unreal! I’m so excited we have tons of leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. Awesome recipe – THANK YOU!!!
thank you for this wonderful recipe! These are the fluffiest pancakes I’ve ever made and so delicious! Even though I scaled back the recipe to 2eggs I got a ton of leftovers to freeze. Thank you for your blog, it’s wonderful!
Great! So glad you enjoyed them. 🙂