My family adores waffles and pancakes! Ok, I confess, I love them too! Plus they are a lot easier to make from scratch then you might imagine. Honestly…cross my heart, scouts honor!!!
Our tradition when we go camping, is to make my famous Buttermilk pancakes the first morning, drizzled with real maple syrup, a side of bacon and fresh fruit to round out the meal. The recipe calls for baking powder and baking soda which are the leavening agents that makes them light and fluffy. It’s a simple, from scratch recipe that produces light, fluffy, flavorful pancakes, no overnight proofing required. Just stir the ingredients together and cook them up. If you would like to give them a try you can find the recipe for them here.
Over the weekend we had my husband’s brother and his wife, Robyn staying with us. I was thrilled when she made these sourdough pancakes for breakfast. I had a blast cooking with her and learning from her.
She is my idol! Move over Martha Stewart! Robyn is a fantastic cook and a fabulous baker! She grew up on a farm where she learned from her grandmother how preserve and can her own fruits and veggies. Plus she makes her own jams, jellies and salsa. She also bakes her own sourdough bread and rolls and has a sourdough starter that she has fed for over 10 years.
I have been baking bread for several months and feel pretty confident with my bread baking skills. I’ve been baking some very nice loaves of artisan bread that my family gobbles up. If you have always wanted to bake bread but you feel intimidated by the whole yeast process and kneading dough and punching it down; I have one of the easiest bread making techniques that you can try. There is no kneading, punching or violence involved, LOL.
You can read all about how to bake bread the easy way here. It really is a very simple process. Once you give it a try you will wonder why you ever felt intimidated by baking bread. Just make sure you have plenty of soft butter ready to slather on your homemade bread after it comes out of the oven.
Do you love sourdough? We adore sourdough! Baking with sourdough is a little different than baking with a more traditional yeast dough. When baking with sourdough you begin with a sourdough starter. I have been wanting to dive into baking with sourdough, but lacked the confidence to make my own starter. There is a lot of information out there on how to do it. Some use yeast, some don’t. Purists swear by not using yeast, but others say it’s ok. Some use pineapple juice…what? Pineapple juice? Really?
I put off the whole sourdough experiment until I could learn from an expert. Cue my sister in law Robyn! She gifted me with a jar of her sour dough starter. Not only did she gift me her starter she also taught me how to make a sourdough batter that can be used for either waffles or pancakes. Am I a lucky girl or what? And today is your lucky day, because I am going to walk you, step by step, through the process.
The process isn’t difficult, you just have to plan ahead a little because the starter needs time to “proof”. Ok…have I lost you already?
Let me back up and start at the beginning. The first thing you need is a sourdough starter. Ask around and see if anyone in your family, maybe a friend or a co-worker has a starter that they might be willing to share with you. Thank you Robyn for sharing your starter with me!!!
If you want to give making your very own sourdough starter check out the post I wrote below for the step by step instructions for how to do it. It is not difficult to do, it’s actually quite simple, you just need to give it time to develop and you need to be patient. After several days your patience will be rewarded with a sourdough starter that you can use to make all kinds of delishious baked goods like these fabulous sourdough pancakes.
To make sourdough pancakes or waffles you will need to begin with a cup of starter. This batter is very versatile, it can be used to make either pancakes or waffles.
A few tips to keep in mind with a starter. First, never use anything metal when scooping or handling starter. Don’t use a metal bowl, metal spoon or metal measuring cup. When you remove a cup of the starter for a recipe, you will need to “feed” the remaining starter.
Feed the starter by adding about a cup of flour and some water and stir until you have a thick gloopy consistency. Cover the jar with a lid, but not a tight fitting lid, you want to be sure that gasses can escape the jar. Store the starter in the refrigerator.
TIP: Once a week you will need to “feed” your starter. Add a cup of flour and some water and stir until you have a thick gloopy consistency. Cover the jar with a lid, and store in the refrigerator.
You can keep a starter like this alive for years! Robyn has kept her starter going for over 10 years!
To make the batter for the sourdough pancakes or waffles add the below ingredients to the 1 cup of starter:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups buttermilk
Mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until well combined and then cover the bowl with a dish towel. I place mine on the kitchen counter or in a cold oven overnight.
TIP: The oven is a great place to allow the dough to rest, “proof” and come together overnight. Just make sure you don’t turn on the heat.
You want to allow this mixture to hang out overnight. The dough won’t rise as much as a typical yeast dough. In fact after sitting out overnight, it won’t look like all that much has happened except that it will look a little bit puffy or swollen, but not all that much. No worries, this is completely normal.
When you are ready to cook up your pancakes or make waffles in the morning add:
- 2 large beaten eggs
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients. The batter will be much thicker than what you may be used to. If it feels like it is too thick, you can add some water or milk to the batter to thin it out a little.
If you are making pancakes, preheat a skillet and add a bit of oil. Once it is hot, use a measuring cup and pour about 1/3 cup of batter onto the skillet and spread it out a bit with the back of your measuring cup. Allow the batter to cook until bubbles appear in the batter and then pop. Flip the pancake and cook on the other side until lightly golden brown.
If you are making waffles, preheat your waffle iron and spread batter onto the waffle iron. Close and cook until waffles are lightly golden brown.
Serve waffles or pancakes, topped with butter and real maple syrup. Fresh fruit and berries are the perfect accompaniment. Oh and bacon, don’t forget a side of crispy bacon! If you are looking for tips on the best ways to cook bacon you can read all about it here.
I highly recommend making these as soon as you can get your hands on some sourdough starter!!! These are the BEST!!!
Sourdough Pancakes
Equipment
- Sourdough starter
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 cup sourdough starter, straight from the fridge (not fed)
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
Instructions
Make overnight sponge:
- In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, buttermilk and starter.
- Stir to combine.
- Cover and allow batter to rest overnight at room temperature.
To make pancakes or waffles:
- Add eggs, melted butter, salt and baking soda to the batter and stir to combine.
- Add a little water if batter seems too thick.
- Pour batter onto a preheated greased skillet, griddle or waffle iron.
- Cook until golden brown and cooked through. Flip pancakes to cook evenly on both sides.
- Serve hot with butter, maple syrup and fresh fruit.
This is such an easy batter to work with! It just requires a little planning ahead because you will need to make sure to purchase some buttermilk and allow time for the dough to hang out overnight. I don’t know about you, but I don’t typically have buttermilk in my fridge. Milk? I have a teenager in the house so I always have milk in the house. Buttermilk? Not so much. I have to make a trip to the grocery store for buttermilk when I decide to make these.
When I made these for the first time I was surprised at how easy it was to make them. When I took my first bite, I almost swooned, they are that good!!!!
Might just have to start a new tradition and make these for breakfast on Christmas morning!!! Oh yah!!!
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