Make these fluffy sourdough discard pancakes using your sourdough starter discard.
You can make the batter the night before and pop into the fridge for quick easy pancakes in the morning!
If you are building your sourdough starter, you will need to discard regularly to ensure it thrives.
The discard can really add up fast. These fluffy sourdough discard pancakes are a quick, easy way to use up your discard.
My kids LOVE pancakes so these are a regular meal at our 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.
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.
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.
My boys absolutely love this whipped honey cinnamon butter on their sourdough pancakes! You might also like to try this sourdough Dutch baby oven pancake, sourdough pumpkin discard bread or these sourdough crepes.
Sourdough Pancakes In The Thermomix
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!
If you want to make overnight sourdough pancakes, you can ferment the ingredients in the Thermo jug overnight on the counter and then just add the egg, butter, vanilla, baking powder and salt the next morning. It makes for an easier clean up with less bowls to wash!
A Few Things To Note
- You can prepare these pancakes the night before by creating a "preferment" and then adding eggs, butter, vanilla, baking powder and salt the next morning (see recipe notes for directions).
- You can replace the milk with buttermilk if you want to. This is a great way to use up the buttermilk from making your own butter or cultured butter.
- 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.
- 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.
- You could make mini pancakes which are fantastic for lunch boxes or toddler breakfasts.
- If you want to add frozen berries, add them just before you flip the pancakes. Raspberries and blueberries work really well.
Further Reading
If you love this recipe, you might enjoy these ideas:
- If you'd prefer whole wheat pancakes, these sourdough pancakes are full of goodness with whole wheat flour, oats and banana.
- Why not try a savory sourdough pancake? These Japanese Okonomiyaki Pancakes are a delight.
- Or if you're a fan of waffles, these No Wait Sourdough Waffles are fantastic!
- If you're looking for the easiest discard bread ever, you'll find my proven recipe here - it's super popular in my Facebook Group!
Sourdough Discard Pancakes
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 pancakes are great! I just tried them for the first time. I was wondering if they would have a tangy flavor because of the discard, but they did not. The had great flavor and texture, and fluffy like it stated. They were a little bit on the sweet side for me, I might cut down on the sugar and vanilla just a little bit, but overall they were excellent and 5 stars from me. My husband and daughter liked them too, so we'll definitely be making them again! A keeper recipe, thank you very much Pantry Mama!
Fermented overnight, loved the tang especially with dark chocolate chips in them!
Absolutely delicious, but will decrease the salt a tad.
Can you freeze these? One batch makes too many for my little family. How would I reheat them?
Yes you can definitely freeze them. I would just warm them in the microwave once defrosted.
The best pancake recipe ever made. Definitely plan ahead for overnight fermentation! Perfect amount of tangy, sweet, and ever so fluffy! Thank you!!
My batter came out really thick. I measured everything accordingly. Did I do something wrong or is it supposed to be really thick…almost like bread dough.
The thickness of the sourdough pancake batter will depend on the type of flour you use, as well as the hydration of your sourdough starter. You can just add a bit of extra milk to thin the batter out a little 🙂
My batter was thick as well. I liked using 1/2 AP and 1/2 whole wheat so will add the additional milk next time as you suggest, Kate. The flour and texture was delicious in every other way however! I will definitely make again!! Thank you, Kate!
Made these with discard and baked. Perfect. My teenage boys loved them. I see the long fermented version of these listed. I would love to try that. Weird question but would the long fermented version be made with discard as well or with active starter? Thanks
So glad your boys loved them! Mine do too! You can use either discard or active starter for the long fermented version 🙂
These are hands down the best pancakes I've ever had in my life. If anyone is looking for a pancake discard recipe, look no further. I added about 2-3 tbsp Saigon cinnamon and at this current moment im fighting the urge to throw up because I felt like I needed to eat them all.. thank you so much for this recipe, I will never not use this whenever I make pancakes in the future. Thank you thank you thank you a million times 🙏💙
Amazingly fluffy! Loved them!
Best pancakes that I’ve ever had. My husband, who is not a pancake guy couldn’t stop eating them.
Do you use the sweet buttermilk you get after making your own butter or do you culture that buttermilk first?
Either work 🙂
These were so, so good!! Definitely a keeper recipe! I replaced the sugar with maple syrup and they still turned out great. From now on, this will for sure be my go to discard pancake recipe!
Made these a couple of days ago and they were some of the best pancakes I've ever had. I did mess up and accidentally added everything at the same time, but they still came out wonderfully. I didn't use all the batter the first day so I just added a little milk the next morning to thin it back out(it got super thick) and they were just as good as the 1st day.
We loved this recipe !! I’m excited to try different variations using almond milk instead of milk. My hubby and kiddos ate them up !!
Excellent!!!
I just made this recipe for my husband and myself. We DEVOURED them! So easy to make and SO DELICIOUS!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes.
We are vegan so if we leave the egg out and use plant based milk and butter, will there be an issue? Use more baking powder for leavening or is the egg a binder of sorts? Thanks for your recipes.
I haven't tried without egg I'm sorry. I would try subbing some banana for the egg thought, that should work 🙂
Wow, the yummiest and easiest pancake recipe I've ever tried. Officially my go to recipe. I wish I doubled the recipe the night before.
These were delicious! I used discard and made right away. The recipe made eight 4-5" pancakes, not 20. Mine do appear to be the same thickness as the ones pictured.
A great way to use discard. Tried both-overnight and ready to use and both are just so delicious. I can't stop eating them. I make the batch, freeze the extra pancakes and have them fo the next 5 days for breakfast. Thanks for the recipe. Outstanding.
I made these as directed except I used oat milk. I had to add a little water to thin the pancakes out a bit because the batter was too thick, probably from the oat milk. They were very good and had a wonderful flavor.
These blew my expectations away. Absolutely will be using my discard for this again.
I make these with GF flour and they are fabulous!
Can you use water instead of milk?
You can, but the milk helps with flavor and fluffiness.