Sourdough Whole Wheat Pancakes
I have a sweet-tooth of a husband who loves his pancakes, waffles, French toast and German pancakes, but I’m not a big sweet breakfast girl and therefore rarely make them. So on occasion, my sweetheart gets up in the morning before me, lets me sleep in (bless him for that), and makes a massive batch of (really spectacularly delicious, and that’s saying a lot coming from me) good old fashioned white pancakes and he and the kids load them with butter and syrup and I feel groggy after one or two. So I’ve been stewing. There’s gotta be a better way. I needed to learn to make a healthy pancake that was actually healthy.
Then I fell in love with sourdough and learned the amazing health benefits of slowly fermented grains (along with the unfortunate negative health consequences of unprepared or improperly prepared whole grains), and my eyes were opened to possibilities even outside of the millions of varieties of bread. I could make pancakes that are actually GOOD for them? And if I serve them with fruit, I feel even less guilt? And on top of the health benefits, these are rich and hearty, with a nice light tang from the sourdough, and they definitely stick-to-your-ribs. Even my huge eaters can last until lunch.
It takes a little bit of thinking ahead, but aren’t we often thinking “what am I going to make for breakfast tomorrow?” when we go to bed anyway? All it takes it one little step of stirring, and you can go to bed knowing half of the work is done. Those awesome probiotics in the sourdough are doing the most work for you.
So if you haven’t grown your own starter yet, here’s yet another awesome reason to jump in and try it. You’ll need quite a bit of starter for this recipe, so once you have an active starter, feed it every 24 hours for a couple of days to get enough for the pancakes and enough leftover so you don’t deplete it. I recommend at least 2.5 cups.
- 2 cups sourdough starter
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, freshly ground if possible
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon fine seat salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
- butter, ghee, or coconut oil of cooking
- In a large bowl, combine the sourdough starter and flour and beat together until evenly mixed. It will be a bit stiff so use a sturdy wooden spoon or even a dough whisk. Cover and let rise on the counter for 8-12 hours, or overnight.
- In the morning, punch down the batter, then beat in the eggs, salt, baking soda, vanilla, and maple or honey.
- Preheat the oven to the lowest setting with an oven-proof platter inside.
- Heat a skillet over medium, add a teaspoon or so of the butter, oil, or ghee. Drop 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan*. It's a relatively thick batter, so you may have to spread it a little with the back of a wet spoon. Once you see several bubbles on the surface of your pancake, flip it over. It should be golden brown**. Cook on the second side until gold brown, and when you gently push down on the middle, it springs back. Place on the platter in the oven and repeat with remaining batter.
- Serve with butter, pure maple syrup, fresh fruit, and all of your favorite pancake toppings.
- *I like to use a 1/4 cup cookie scoop
- **Adjust the temperature if needed. If it's too pale, turn up the heat a a little, if it's too dark, turn it down.
Charity
May 29, 2020
When trying to get enough starter, and feeding it with larger amts can you just feed it and not throw out any when you feed it?