Delicious Sourdough Discard Pancakes

Does your family love pancakes for breakfast? Are you looking for new sourdough recipes to make with your leftover discard? If so, then you are going to love our family’s sourdough discard pancakes! These delicious and moist pancakes quickly became a family favorite and we make them almost every week.

During COVID I started making homemade sourdough bread like so many others who were stuck at home. I quickly discovered that I had more sourdough discard (this is the excess sourdough starter that you don’t immediately use) than I knew what to do with. That’s when I started experimenting with recipes to use my leftover starter. I love the taste of sourdough so I started thinking about foods that would be good with some added sourdough. These sourdough discard pancakes were actually one of the first recipes I created with my discard along with my Sourdough Crepes Recipe.

Do you want to know the secret ingredient in these pancakes that makes them the best pancakes ever? It’s not just the sourdough discard, but the sour cream. I actually started out by trying to make buttermilk pancakes with my leftover discard. One morning I found myself out of buttermilk and wondered what would happen if I modified my recipe and added sour cream instead. The result? Incredibly tasty and fluffy sourdough pancakes. We’ve been making these sourdough discard pancakes with sour cream ever since!

Equipment Needed To Make Pancakes

• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Large Mixing Bowl
• Medium Mixing Bowl
• Laddle
• Pancake Turner
• Griddle
• Pancake Warmer
• Kitchen Scale

How To Make Sourdough Discard Pancakes

This recipe is best made the night prior to cooking, but you can also mix the pancake batter up and eat them in the same morning! I will just take my leftover sourdough starter discard out of the fridge in the morning and let it come to room temperature before making my pancakes. When I have extra time and really want fluffy pancakes, I’ll use my excess sourdough starter in the evening to prepare the batter to sit overnight. I find that I get the fluffiest sourdough pancakes when I mix the batter and put it in the fridge overnight. This gives the starter time to develop more and the sourdough taste really intensifies nicely.

While your batter is resting, heat your griddle on medium heat. On my griddle, I heat it to just below 350 degrees. I’ve found that this makes for a nice and golden colored pancake. Oil your skillet with either butter or coconut oil. Once your griddle is heated, it’s time to cook your pancakes!

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the griddle, making sure the pancakes don’t run together. After about 2-3 minutes, you should notice bubbles starting to appear on your pancakes. When those bubbles start to pop, it’s time to flip your pancakes. Flip your pancakes and let them cook for another 1-2 minutes on the other side.

Transfer your cooked pancakes into your pancake warmer while you make the rest of the batter. I use a pancake warmer lined with a flour sack towel to keep the ready pancakes nice and warm until I’m ready to serve. It used to be that we were always eating one at a time as our griddle only cooks 4 pancakes at a time. With this pancake warmer, I’m able to cook all the pancakes and then we can sit down together and enjoy our sourdough discard pancakes.

Once your pancakes are cooked, serve hot with your favorite toppings. Of course butter and maple syrup are our favorite way to eat these sourdough discard pancakes.

How To Store Sourdough Discard Pancakes

• You can store your left over pancakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.
• If you are not going to eat your left-over pancakes right away, you can freeze the left over pancakes in a zip-lock freezer bag. I will usually write the date on the outside of the bag so I know when I made the pancakes. Also, it’s important that you make sure the pancakes are completely cooled before closing up in the zip-lock bag. Otherwise, too much moisture will accumulate in the bag and cause ice crystals to form.

How To Reheat Leftover Sourdough Discard Pancakes

It’s easy to reheat leftover sourdough pancakes! In our house we have a Breville Smart Oven which has a warming feature. When the leftover pancakes have been stored in the fridge, I place the leftovers in the smart oven on the warm setting at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes.

If the pancakes are frozen, I’ll typically place them in the smart oven on the warm setting at 250 for about 20-30 minutes, flipping them about half way through. I often find myself making more pancakes than we need to purposely have leftovers. This is a great way to have an easy school morning breakfast for my daughter.

I’d love to hear what you think!

I hope you enjoy our family’s favorite breakfast pancake recipe! We make this recipe weekly and it’s so easy to make! Be sure to visit The Flowering Farmhouse Blog for more recipes and home and garden inspo!