Crispy, fluffy pancakes, yum! This recipe is a great way to use up extra sourdough starter.
Got Extra Sourdough Starter? This Recipe is For You!
Confession: I can easily go a month or two without using my sourdough starter. Life gets busy and sometimes I just never get around to making anything with sourdough.
Nonetheless, I keep my sourdough starter in the fridge and *try* to remember to feed it once a week. Every so often it reaches the point where I have too much starter and have to either throw some away (which I can't bear to do) or use some starter in a recipe.
This sourdough pancake recipe is perfect for using up the extra starter. It's quick-and-easy, with no time-consuming fermentation period.
Why Einkorn and Sourdough?
It's all about the nutrition.
This recipe uses mostly sourdough starter with a little fresh flour added in. The process of souring the flour works to neutralize the phytic acid antinutrient (which is present in all grains), thereby making the nutrients in the bread more able to be utilized by the body. Recent scientific research has shown that sourdough white bread actually has a more beneficial affect on blood sugar than (non-sourdough) whole grain bread. And, sourdough is often better tolerated by people with gluten issues, too.
This recipe uses Einkorn flour, which is made from an ancient variety of wheat that has never been hybridized. Einkorn is quite different from modern wheat: Einkorn has far fewer chromosomes than modern wheat, and Einkorn is naturally lower in gluten and higher in protein than modern wheat. Some people who have sensitivities to gluten in modern wheat can actually consume Einkorn with no problems. All Purpose Einkorn Flour also has a superior nutrient profile compared to modern white flour, even though it does not have added vitamins like conventional flour does.
Recipe Notes
The sourdough combined with baking powder and baking soda gives these pancakes a nice rise, so they're fluffy instead of dense. Just look at how pretty they are!
The sourdough starter I use in this recipe is cold, straight from the fridge.
This recipe only has a touch of unrefined sweetener, feel free to add plenty of maple syrup at serving time.
These pancakes can be topped with butter and maple syrup, or they can be fancied up with sweetened whipped cream and fruit.
Einkorn Sourdough Discard Pancakes
Makes 18-20 pancakes
2 Tb butter, melted
2 cups of Einkorn sourdough starter (cold from the fridge)
1 cup of Einkorn all-purpose flour
3 Tb sucanat
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs, preferably from pastured hens
Additional butter, for cooking the pancakes
Melt 2 Tb butter in a small saucepan. Turn off heat and allow it to cool a bit.
Combine the Einkorn flour, sucanat, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
Pour the sourdough starter into a large bowl.
In a small bowl, beat two eggs with a fork. Add the milk and melted butter. Stir well to combine.
Whisk the milk mixture into the sourdough starter.
Whisk in the flour mixture. Depending on how thick your sourdough starter was to begin with, feel free to add a bit more milk or flour now to make sure the pancake batter is the right consistency to be able to pour it.
Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. I like to use a cast iron skillet to cook the pancakes.
Melt some butter in the skillet, coating the bottom of the skillet well. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet for each pancake; a 1/3 measuring cup works well for this.
Cook each pancake until golden brown on one side (about 2-3 minutes). One easy way to know when it is time to flip the pancakes is to watch for the little bubbles that form in the batter. Flip the pancake and cook an additional 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
Repeat steps 8 and 9 with the remaining batter.
Top the pancakes with butter and maple syrup, or fancy them up with sweetened whipped cream and fruit!
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