Flavorful Sourdough Discard Pancakes
One of my greatest gripes when I started dabbling with sourdough bread was the waste. Since I use my sourdough starter often, I’m discarding half of it daily. And, being the queen of never-throwing-things-away (just ask Zach how much he loves this aspect of my personality), I immediately dove into the world of sourdough discard recipes, determined that half of my well-tended starter not end up in the trash bin. The very first recipe I tackled was these sourdough pancakes and ooh they were just too good not to share. This recipe is a modification of my well-loved buttermilk pancake recipe. It yields fluffy sourdough discard pancakes with the perfect touch of tang. They’re tender and irresistible and (bonus!) the batter can be made up to two days in advance. I like to make the batter Friday or Saturday and we’ll have breakfast prepped for the weekend. Side note: if discard is new to you, hop over to my sourdough starter post to find out exactly what this ingredient is.
Why try my sourdough pancakes:
Thick, fluffy results that pair perfectly with syrup and butter (though sometimes my kids eat these plain, too). Batter can be made in advance, if you’d like to make it a day or two beforehand. Sourdough imparts a subtle tangy flavor, similar to buttermilk. Has some nutritional benefits from the discard, so these aren’t completely empty carbs 😉
What You Need
Sourdough discard pancakes are as simple to make as any other pancake recipe. Just a few key ingredients are worth noting before we get started:
Sourdough discard. Discard is what you (literally) discard before you feed your sourdough starter. Even though it’s usually thrown away, it still contains vitamins and nutrients and imparts a lovely flavor into recipes. Here, the discard adds a flavor similar to buttermilk (which is actually why I use plain milk in this recipe!). Flour. Use all-purpose flour and make sure to measure it properly. Sugar. I use granulated sugar, but I’ve also made my sourdough pancakes with coconut sugar too. I find that the pancakes made with coconut sugar are not quite as flavorful, but it does work! Butter. I use unsalted, but if you only have salted on hand that will work fine. Melt the butter, then let it cool a bit so it’s not very hot when you add it to your other ingredients. Milk. I like to use whole milk, but really any kind will work as long as it is at room temperature before adding. Because the sourdough discard adds plenty of tang from the acidity, I found buttermilk to be overwhelming here, so stick with regular milk. Eggs. As with the milk, your eggs should be at room temperature before adding them to the batter. This helps everything combine nicely and means less mixing is required (which yields fluffier pancakes with a better texture!). If you forget to set yours out, you can always use my trick to quickly bring eggs to room temperature.
SAM’S TIP: The butter tends to re-solidify once it hits cooler ingredients like milk or eggs, so the batter can get a bit clumpy (this is another reason we want our ingredients to be room temperature, it helps minimize this!). This isn’t a huge deal! A lumpy batter is fine and it’s much better than over-mixing to try and get the lumps out, which will leave you with dense, rubbery, or flat sourdough pancakes. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Sourdough Pancakes
Preparing the batter
Cooking the Pancakes
SAM’S TIP: Don’t get discouraged if your first pancake comes out a little less than perfect–I like to think of this as the test pancake. Use it as a gauge for whether you need to bump your heat up or down, and know that your second, third, etc. sourdough pancakes will look much better as a result. I’d love to hear how you like these sourdough pancakes compared to my buttermilk pancakes! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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