Sourdough Discard Pancakes
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Make these fluffy sourdough pancakes using your sourdough starter discard and a few common ingredients you're sure to have on hand. You can make the batter the night before and pop into the fridge for quick easy pancakes in the morning, with all the benefits of long fermentation (the flavor and texture of long fermented sourdough pancakes is definitely one to try). They are also perfect to mix and cook right away too if you need a pancakes fast!
My kids LOVE fluffy pancakes so these are a regular meal at our house (it's totally acceptable to serve sourdough pancakes for dinner sometimes in my house). While I don't necessarily need to discard in order to maintain my mature sourdough starter, I feed it a little extra to make sure I am able to make these whenever the need arises. If you are still making a sourdough starter, you will need to discard regularly to ensure your starter thrives (read more about why you must discard sourdough starter).
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
You'll love this discard recipe because you can make these overnight long fermented or mix and cook straight away. I love making them the night before and allowing them to ferment a little before we cook them for breakfast. It's an easy way to get some of the good stuff into my growing boys, served alongside these sourdough scrambled eggs.
Ingredients
- Sourdough Starter - you can use sourdough discard or active starter, it's really up to you. I just use whatever I have on hand! Check out my instruction for how to make a sourdough starter.
- All Purpose Flour - you can sub up to 100g whole wheat flour. If you want to use more whole wheat flour than this, I recommend these whole wheat sourdough pancakes.
- Milk - use any type of milk you prefer, even non dairy milk will work in this recipe. If you have a lot of buttermilk on hand from making homemade butter or cultured butter, this is a perfect substitute too.
- Butter - you'll need melted butter, I've used salted as always, but feel free to use unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Baking Powder - not baking soda.
- Salt - just a pinch, leave it out if you really want to (I add salt to pretty much everything)
- Vanilla Extract
How To Make Sourdough Discard Pancakes
Pancakes are one of the easiest sourdough discard recipes out there! You can choose to make giant pancakes, regular sized or even mini pancakes (these are perfect for packed lunches).
Add the sourdough starter, milk, egg, butter, vanilla and sugar to a large bowl. Whisk well until just combined.
Now add the remaining ingredients (all purpose flour, baking powder and salt) to the liquid ingredients and whisk until a batter forms. This batter is ready to use straight away, but can be fermented overnight in the refrigerator if you want to (I've added notes for this in the recipe card at the bottom of this post).
You can cook your homemade pancakes in a large frying pan or skillet.
Kate's Recipe Tips
- Let all the bubbles fully form on the surface before you flip them over. A lower heat is better as it lets the bubbles develop without burning the outside.
Oven Baked Sourdough Discard Pancakes
If we are really in a hurry in the morning, I sometimes oven bake our pancakes. You'll find the full instructions for sourdough discard sheet pan pancakes here. I place a sheet of parchment paper into a shallow tray or roasting pan and then pour the pancake batter into it.
If I have time I'll sprinkle some frozen berries and shredded coconut on the top. But they are great plain too.
I bake in a moderate oven for around 15 to 30 minutes. The batter is very forgiving so it's hard to muck them up! This method works whether you make the batter and bake immediately or make the batter the night before. Once baked, I just cut them into squares and the kids love them! They cook up nice and fluffy.
Our Favorite Toppings
Breakfast is a big deal in our house! Along with sourdough pancakes, we also love sourdough waffles, sourdough crepes and this sourdough Dutch baby pancake. And all of these things need toppings, right! Here are our favorite toppings for sourdough pancakes:
- Freshly whipped cream and berries are always welcome, but if you want to add frozen berries to the actual pancakes, add them just before you flip the pancakes. Raspberries and blueberries work really well in this manner.
- Fancy butter - For something extra indulgent, we love our sourdough pancakes topped with whipped maple butter, whipped honey cinnamon butter or this whipped brown butter! These butters all work really well on sourdough bread too!
- Ice cream - to make these sourdough pancakes extra special, add a big scoop of your favorite ice cream on top.
How To Store + Freeze
Fridge - These pancakes are suitable to cook the day before and store in the fridge. You can microwave them in the morning for a quick and easy breakfast.
Freeze - You can freeze the cooked pancakes. Wait until they are cool and then freeze with pieces of parchment paper in between so they don't stick together. A ziplock bag is perfect for this.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a Thermomix, these sourdough discard pancakes are even easier to make. You can place all the ingredients into the bowl at the same time. Mix on speed 4 for about a minute and voila - easiest Thermomix sourdough discard pancakes ever!
Sourdough pancakes do have a more complex flavor than regular pancakes. You can taste the sourdough discard for sure. You will get a more pronounced sourdough flavor if you ferment the pancake batter in the fridge overnight.
Sourdough Discard Pancakes
Video
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 100 g Sourdough starter discard
- 200 g All Purpose Flour you can sub up to 100g whole wheat flour
- 200 g Milk you can sub with buttermilk if you'd like (see notes)
- 50 g Butter Melted
- 40 g Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 8 g Baking Powder
- 3 g Salt (a pinch of salt)
- 5 g Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Add the sourdough starter, milk, egg, butter, vanilla and sugar to a bowl. Whisk well until just combined.
- Now add the flour, baking powder and salt to the liquid ingredients and whisk until well combined and a batter forms.
- This batter is ready to use straight away (see notes below if you want to ferment the batter overnight).
- Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil and butter to grease it. Cook the pancakes to your desired size (use a mini soup ladle to scoop out the mixture). Let all the bubbles fully form on the surface before you flip them over. A lower heat is better as it lets the bubbles develop without burning the outside.
Notes
- Add the Sourdough Starter, sugar, milk and flour together in a bowl and mix until well combined. Leave it on the counter overnight (it's perfectly safe to leave the milk overnight, however if you're worried it can go in the fridge for up to 24 hours).
- In the morning, add eggs, baking powder, melted butter, salt and vanilla essence and mix well until it forms a batter.
- The batter made this way will be quite stretchy because of the overnight fermentation of the flour.
- Cook as instructed in the regular recipe above.
Nutrition
These were excellent. The only thing I did differently was to add a little cinnamon to the batter. My son said they tasted like donuts and he didn’t even need syrup.
OMG!
I never ever leave comments but had to for this. I made this recipe but followed it for overnight prep… the best pancakes I have ever had! So good!
Going into my family recipe list!
Thank you
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing, Brittany! We love to hear that! 🙂
Absolutely delish! Quick to make (without overnight ferment) and the perfect fluffy pancake!
Delicious pancakes. Super light and fluffy. I didn't have regular milk or buttermilk, so I used soy milk. They still came out great! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This is my favorite sourdough pancake recipe. I made them and gave as Christmas gifts and everyone loved them. So Good!!!
Only pancake recipe I use!! My husband can’t believe he used to eat pancakes from box mix when this was out there lol! My kids gobble them down. Huge hit for the entire family. Divine with blueberries added in!
Delicious! I made a double batch and my family loved them. I had to add extra buttermilk as the mixture seemed a little too thick—but that’s just a personal preference. Thanks for another great recipe!
Absolutely delicious! I added chocolate chips to the second half of the mixture and they were the best pancakes I’ve ever had. They were easy to make too. Thank you for the recipe!
Had them for breakfast this morning and they we’re delicious 😋
The batter was really thick but I just went for it and the pancakes were so thick and fluffy! They were awesome
These are the BEST pancakes I have ever made. So light, fluffy and delicious! You are going to want to have extra discard around so you can make these with a regularity. If I could give ten stars I totally would!
These pancakes are fantastic!! Recipe is easy to follow, i mix it all up with my immersion blender. They reheat in the microwave so nicely! Other pancakes when reheated are chewy and rubbery, but these ones maintain their fluffiness and beautiful texture! A new staple in our household!
We love to hear that, Aubrie!
How would you convert from grams to cups teaspoon tablespoon etc.
Hi Wendy, you would have to search to find an online converter tool. We really don't recommend cups/spoon measurements as you'll get a better result with weighted measurements. This post on why we use weighted measurements with sourdough may clarify a bit more. Having said that - we do receive comments that readers have used online converters with good results. 🙂
I LOVE this recipe! I don’t even like pancakes and find these amazing!
My family is going on a ski trip and has requested these for breakfast one day. I’m wondering if I can measure out everything at home and put the ingredients in wet and dry containers and take it with me that way, then mix them together when we are ready. Has anyone tried something like this. Tips?
Thanks
You can absolutely do that with the dry ingredients, but I'm not sure they would turn out the same with the wet ingredients being premixed for awhile.
Delicious! We have made it both ways, mixing and cooking or fermenting overnight, and they're both delicious. We add blueberries or chocolate chips, but they're great plain, too! Make a double batch because they freeze well!
I don’t know what it was about these pancakes but they were really good! Light, subtly sweet and very delicious!
So delicious and such an easy recipe to follow! Fan favorite in our house for sure!!
How do you store the left over pancake mix to use the next morning!
We usually store the cooked pancakes, but we have had readers mention they successfully store the batter covered tightly in the fridge and make the pancakes the next morning. 🙂
My dough is very thick. Is it supposed to be?
The batter thickness will depend on the hydration of your sourdough starter and the type of flour. If your batter is too thick, you can add a little more milk to thin it out.
This is my go-to recipe for discard pancakes! The flavor is great with the addition of the vanilla. My whole family loves these pancakes. I use a 2tbsp scoop & it makes around 10 4-5inch pancakes. They also freeze well. I usually double the recipe when I want extra to keep in the freezer for quick breakfast days.
The family loves these pancakes! I’m wondering if I could make chocolate pancakes by adding cocoa to this recipe?
Yes you can or you can use this sourdough chocolate waffle batter 🙂
I am so much enjoying sourdough journey with you. Been making sourdough loaves for a few months now. And loving it.
And then coming back to your site for to learn what to do with all the extra starter (discard). you have superb recipes for that too!!!
I am vegetarian so I adapt the recipes to remove the eggs.
I prefer wholemeal flours, instead of white flour, again I just adapt the recipes for my need. Thank you for putting this all together, Pantry Mama.
my Family loves the pancakes I also turn them into waffles, but I add liquid whey instead of milk they are so delicious and full of protein.