Fluffy, lightly golden, and perfectly soured, you’ll be ditching your box pancake mix for good with this simple sourdough discard pancake recipe.
There’s nothing like filling your belly up on Saturday morning with a good breakfast. There’s also nothing like waking up and preparing a good breakfast on a Saturday morning.
From sourdough english muffins to these sourdough discard pancakes, I’ve recently been enjoying converting classic recipes over to sourdough in any way I can. My son enjoys eating the recipes. I enjoy making them. And there is always sourdough fermenting on the counter just waiting to be used. It’s a win win.
This simple sourdough discard pancake recipe are the best way to use up all of that otherwise useless starter that isn’t established enough to leaven breads yet. It also adds a really unique flavor that pancakes otherwise wouldn’t have.
Simple Sourdough Discard Pancake Recipe Instructions
Sourdough discard pancakes are so simple and a lot similar to your classic pancake recipe.
The ingredients are
- 1 cup of sourdough starter discard
- 1 1/4 cup of unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1/2 Tsp of baking soda
- 1/2 Tsp of baking powder
- An egg
- 1 Tsp melted butter
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 Cup of whole milk, buttermilk or kefir
- 1 Tsp vanilla
- A pinch of salt
The pancakes have the addition of cinnamon to balance the sour flavor of the sourdough discard. You can also use milk kefir as a milk replacement for extra probiotics in your flapjacks.
To cook your pancakes, first preheat a cast iron skillet or griddle on the stovetop at medium heat.
Mix all of the ingredients in a batter bowl and let sit for 5 minutes to let the baking soda and powder do their magic. Then, pour 1/2 cups of batter onto the hot and buttered skillet. Let cook thoroughly and flip the pancake.
Tips for making the perfect sourdough pancakes
I’m sharing some tips for your sake, because honestly I still struggle to know when a pancake is perfectly golden and ready to be flipped. But I’ve learned a lot in my many years of pancake making.
- For fluffy pancakes, make a thicker batter.
- A pancake is ready to flip when you see bubbles rising to the surface
- Make sure the cooking surface is hot before adding batter. Having the perfect temperature is crucial to fluffy and well cooked pancakes
- For thicker pancake batter, make your starter thicker by using less water and more flour when feeding it
- Use buttermilk or milk kefir in place of milk makes the pancakes have a little extra sourness
- Convert this recipe to all sourdough starter by omitting the 1 1/4 cup of flour and adding 1 cup of sourdough discard. The starter should be very thick if this method is used
How to store sourdough discard pancakes
My favorite way to store these are in the fridge in a glass storage container. They can be kept in the fridge this way for a few days. Pancake batter can be stored for up to a few days as well. My preferred method is storing the batter over the cooked pancakes. They taste better when served.
Another idea for storing these is to thin down the batter a bit and make sourdough discard mini waffles to freeze and pop in the toaster for busy mornings.
My Favorite Pancake Making Supplies
10.5 Inch Flat Cast Iron Skillet
Sourdough Discard Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 Cup of sourdough discard
- 1 1/4 Cup of unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1/2 Tsp of baking soda
- 1/2 Tsp of baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 Tsp melted butter
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of milk or kefir
- 1 Tsp of vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat
- Add all ingredients into a bowl
- Stir to combine
- Add butter to heated skillet
- Add batter to skillet in 1/2 cup portions
- Cook pancake until bubbles rise to surface then flip pancake
- Serve warm with favorite toppings