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 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!
I’m not great at following directions so instead of mixing the liquids first and adding the dry next, I just dumped everything in the bowl and mixed. I used plain milk and cooked on a griddle. These turned out so fluffy and delicious. New favorite pancake recipe! (New to sour dough and my starter doesn’t want to double yet so I have lots of discard..happy to find this recipe).
Hi, I have a question. I mix 100g BRM WW to 300g of APF as suggested but the batter turn out to be very thick. Is it supposed to be thick ?
I love so many of your recipes and always go to you for advice so I looked forward to trying these pancakes. My attempt resulted in a huge disappointment, way too thick and heavy, even after diluting with much more milk.
Wow! These pancakes are so delicious and fluffy! By far the most fluffiest pancakes I have ever eaten. Im new to making recipes with sourdough and this recipe was easy to follow. I’m definitely saving this recipe.
Shoot! I somehow commented on the wrong recipe. Ha! Disregard please!
Does the butter bet added to the batter? It says to butter to grease the pan, but that’s a lot of butter for just that reason.
Is the melted butter supposed to be for cooking or the batter?
Recipe calls for 50g butter-but not indicated when to add
50g butter is listed with the ingredients, but isn't mentioned in the body of the recipe. I drizzle it into the batter after the rest of the ingredients are incorporated, but when is it supposed to be added?
There is butter listened in ingredients but don't see it anywhere in instructions. Or am I blind? lol
Fermented overnight, loved the tang especially with dark chocolate chips in them!
Absolutely delicious, but will decrease the salt a tad.
Loved the recepie! Im new with sourdough and discard recepies are def a lot of fun. Did the overnight option and it gave the sour taste I was looking for! At the end, I had leftover batter and dont want to make the pancakes to freeze. Can I put the batter in the fridge? IF SO, FOR HOW LONG?
I was reading the comments and saw your comment and thought to myself, I haven’t tried this recipe yet! lol My name is spelled the same way! And I would put dark chocolate chips in too! Have a great day!
Can the whole batter be made the night before? Trying to take the batter camping with us, and not have to bring all the extras to add in the morning of. Thanks for all your wisdom, it’s greatly appreciated 😊
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.
Going to try these today! One thing I wish.....I wish you also posted amounts needed in cups, tablespoons, etc. But appreciate your website immensely!
Perfect 👍 Exactly what I was looking for! It made 3 kids 5 and under happy. I look forward to cooking ahead and freezing for lunchboxes and quick breakfast for busy school mornings.
The best pancake recipe ever made. Definitely plan ahead for overnight fermentation! Perfect amount of tangy, sweet, and ever so fluffy! Thank you!!
Tried these pancakes with blueberries, a little on the dense side, but nice yeasty flavor. It’s probably best to ferment overnight. I did not add the sugar; they were eaten with maple syrup, sweet enough for us.
Thanks!
Love this recipe! I added a dash of nutmeg and they are delicious!
Have you tried a gluten free flour with this recipe? Thanks
These were delicious! I only made a 1/2 batch, did half whole wheat and half all purpose, used water instead of milk (didn’t have any), replaced sugar with monk fruit sugar and plopped some blueberries in them while cooking. I have some left, so they will be in the freezer ready for the next time.
These were so so good! I had to make two batches. I did have to push the batter down a little when I put it in the pan because it was so thick. But the flavor and texture was great! Thank you for sharing.
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!
My family loves this recipe! I make them every Sunday and freeze for breakfast during the week. What temperature do you recommend for the oven?
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.
I’m so glad I read the comments on this post. Couldn’t agree more this is the best pancake recipe ever!! I used half the sugar and my husband and I love these! By far the best recipe and fluffiest pancakes ever! I have been mixing all the ingredients including the flour the night before storing in the fridge overnight and making in the mornings!
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!