Sourdough Pancakes

Thanks to this month's Daring Bakers' Challenge, I have been spending a lot of time teaching myself about the wonderful world of sourdough. As I mentioned in that post, once my starter really got going, I started bookmarking all kinds of recipes and ideas of ways to incorporate sourdough (or, sourdough starter, really) into my everyday baking.

My first non-bread use of my starter came in the form of pancakes.

One thing about cooking or baking with sourdough is that, with many of the recipes, it takes a little bit of advance planning. Luckily, it is nothing too complicated, it's just that these recipes need a bit of extra time. Such was the case with the pancake recipe I selected. It was actually no big deal at all - the night before I planned on making the pancakes, I mixed together a "pancake starter," which was simply made by stirring together some of my still-as-of-yet-unnamed starter, flour and water - kind of like giving the starter a feed, just in slightly different proportions.

Give this a stir, cover with plastic wrap and go to sleep. See? Not complicated at all, just needed a little bit of advance thought.

The next morning, all that was left to do was to mix together a few additional ingredients,


and then incorporate those into my pancake starter.

Then, well, it's pancake batter! You know the drill... onto the griddle...

wait a couple of minutes...


(yeah, the sourdough made these bubble extra cool...)

Then flip and eat and enjoy!

Yeah, we ate them right out of the pan and were so excited to try them that I didn't take a picture... oops.

BUT, both little miss and I agreed that they were just okay. I mean, they were decent pancakes, but not our favorites. They were missing something. The recipe that I was following was actually for blueberry pancakes, but, well, it's December in the Mid-Atlantic... blueberries aren't exactly in season... so I just made the pancakes as, well, pancakes. But as I said, they were missing something.

So for pancake number two for each of us, we improvised.

Chocolate chips.

All I can say is GOOD CALL.

I know what you are thinking, "of course chocolate chips, chocolate makes everything better!" But this was beyond that. The combination of the tang from the sourdough and the sweetness of the chocolate chips was exactly what this recipe needed. (you know, in place of the blueberries, which probably would be just as delicious...)

Little miss and I were very happy with our breakfast that morning.

And, in case you are curious, I covered the un-used batter with plastic wrap and put it into the fridge so that we could have fresh pancakes the next morning. This recipe does make quite a bit of batter, so we had pancakes for three days in a row. But I promise - no one was complaining!

Chocolate Chip Sourdough Pancakes

(only slightly adapted from Macheesmo)

Pancake Starter:

1 cup sourdough starter

1 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)

The night before you want your pancakes (or if you want them for dinner, just do this at least four hours in advance), combine the starter, water and flour in a large bowl or container. Loosely cover and set aside until you are ready to make the batter.

Final Batter:

1 egg

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Rested pancake starter

Chocolate chips

Whisk together all of the batter ingredients, except for the starter (and the chocolate chips...), until well combined. Add the combined wet ingredients to the pancake starter and fold everything together until everything is mixed together, and is approximately the consistency of thick gravy.

To cook the pancakes, heat your pan or griddle until it is hot (a drop of water will dance when it hits the pan or griddle when it is hot enough). Melt some butter on the pan or griddle and pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter at a time (these make pretty big pancakes) onto the surface. I used a small pan and made one pancake at a time, but you can make as many as your pan can accommodate. Once the batter has been poured onto the pan or griddle, sprinkle chocolate chips on top. We were very liberal with our chocolate chip sprinkling... Within a few minutes, you will see the edges begin to dry and lots of bubbles on the surface. That means your pancakes are ready to flip, so carefully flip them to cook the other side. Wait just a couple of minutes, and your pancakes are done!

Serve as you like them best - butter and syrups, a sprinkling of powdered sugar - whatever works for you.

Happy breakfast!