[Recipe] Easy Sourdough Pancakes

Sourdough pancakes – Ultra lazy version

I’ve been baking sourdough bread pretty regularly these days! I’ve got a routine going. Thursday I’ll start ramping up my starter feeding schedule, so that it’ll be ready to mix on Friday night or Saturday morning (wooo… paaaarty hard! that’s me!).

Though I love having freshly baked bread every week, the serious downside to maintaining a sourdough starter is the sheer amount of wastage that goes into feeding the darn thing. Unless you’re actually bakery, or one of those insane people who bake every day, it’s inevitable that a lot of starter will get discarded to keep it at a manageable weight. As a result, I’ve thrown out a lot of flour & water over the past few months, and it doesn’t feel great!

Luckily, bakers are a pretty resourceful lot, and I’ve been reading up on some useful ways of using up that discarded starter. So far my favourite (and my family’s favourite) way is to make huge stacks of sourdough pancakes!

They’re a really easy way to impress. The pancakes are fluffier and airier than your average pancakes, have a chewier texture, and a lightly sour flavour (not quite as strong as sourdough bread).

Sourdough pancakes topped with yoghurt and fresh strawberries

It’s a pretty simple recipe! Like all sourdough-related recipes, it does take a bit of planning and prep. If I’m planning on having pancakes for Sunday breakfast, I’ll mix up a batch before I go to bed on Saturday night, and leave it to rest overnight. It’s a great recipe for lazy weekends!

This recipe also comes in an Ultra Lazy Edition. If I’m ultra lazy, I’ll skip the overnight wait altogether, and use a bit of bicarb soda to help it along. You won’t get as full a sourdough flavour, and the pancakes won’t be quite as fluffy, but they are still pretty great.

Sourdough pancakes – overnight version. Uglier, but more delicious!

The fun part about this recipe is that it doesn’t require any rising agent to become so fluffy! It gets it all from the starter. It’s also the reason why you need to give it a bit of time to recover after you whisk the eggs in. If you’re in a hurry, skip to my Ultra Lazy Edition notes at the bottom of the page – and it’ll give you some tips on adding bicarb soda to give it more oomph.

What my pancake batter looks like the next morning. Bubbly!

BUBBLES!

I’ve been trying out different toppings too (ie. whatever is in the fridge on Sunday morning). Fresh fruit is always a winner for me, though lately I’ve taken to grilling bananas lightly in a frying pan with a little bit of butter. Yum!

Banana slices with salted caramel sauce

Grilled bananas topped with shredded coconut and honey

My boyfriend on the other hand prefers them savoury! Fried on top of fried.

Sourdough Pancakes (makes approx 14 pancakes)

The night before – mix these ingredients together in a BIG bowl (best to use a plastic mixing bowl otherwise the acid in the starter can react funnily to metal bowls overnight):

1 cup unfed sourdough starter
2 cups water
2 1/2 cups flour (I like to use a mix of wholemeal and plain flour, but it’s up to you)

Cover with clingwrap and leave overnight at room temp (I leave it on top of my fridge). The mixture will expand a lot!

The next morning –
Whisk in:

3 eggs beaten with 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp of salt (adjust to taste)

As always, sourdough recipes vary a bit depending on the state of your starter. My starter has a high water content, so that’s the ratio that worked for me. If your batter is too thick, you can add a bit of milk at this stage to thin the mixture out. You want a thick pancake batter consistency though, not crepe.

Leave mixture for 1 hour to recover. Once it’s become bubbly again…

Heat up your pan and coat very lightly with butter. Fry pancakes!

BONUS! ULTRA LAZY EDITION aka hangover Sunday version:
Proceed as normal, but skip the overnight wait. Instead, when your pan is just about ready to go… mix 1 tsp of bicarb with 1 tsp of water in a small bowl. Stir that into your mixture. It should react with the acidity and start to bubble (yay chemistry!). Once the mixture is all nice and bubbly…

IT’S PANCAKE TIME!