Sourdough Pancakes

Sourdough Pancakes: The Recipe You Didn't Know You Needed

Milan, Italy. Winter 2020

Sourdough pancakes have become a weekend staple at the Panela Bakery household. After gliding your fork through the steamy stack of pancakes, and giving it that first taste, you will find yourself traveling to a field of puffy clouds like those you see from a plane window. Except, this time, you're not seeing them for afar, but instead, you're floating in their delicate airiness. The sourdough starter inoculates the batter with a flavor complexity unkown to regular pancakes, resulting in fruity and nutty notes perfuming your kitchen and reviving your tastebuds.

I am aware that not everyone has an active sourdough starter populating their kitchen counters. Although, in this day and age of #coronabaking, the census of starters has skyrocketed. If you don't have one already, this is the perfect time to give birth to your own active heard of wild yeast. If you do have one, this recipe is ideal to make use of your discard and reduce your waste.

If you are interested in getting a sourdough starter going, you can read my complete guide here.

Here are the ingredients and instructions on how to indulge palette every weekend.

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Ingredients

200 g of AP flour

1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of salt

30 g of brown sugar

1 egg

190 g/ml of milk

130 g of mature starter

Method

STEP 1. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk together and set aside.

STEP 2. On a separate bowl, whisk together milk and eggs. Then add sugar, whisk to combine, and add starter. carefully incorporate.

STEP 3. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and whisk until there are is no visible dry flour. It is normal for your batter to be lumpy, do not keep mixing in an attempt to smooth it out. Cover with plastic wrap (which is recyclable) and let it rest minimum for thirty minutes. Overnight in the fridge is optimal.

STEP 4. If you rested the batter overnight in the fridge, transfer your bowl onto the counter. Preheat your pan of choice (I use a cast iron skillet) on high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Turn your heat to medium low and grease your pan with butter, ghee or even olive oil. Pour the pancake batter into the pan with an ice cream scoop until you are satisfied with the its size, and when you start seeing bubbles in the surface of the pancakes and it starts getting dry around the edges, it is time to flip them. Let the pancakes brown on the other side for 3-4 minutes and transfer into a plate.

Notes on Recipe

• These pancakes are sweet enough to pair them up with honey, jam, chocolate spread...or whatever you can think of. They are also savoury enough to spread some cream cheese and top them off with smoked salmon. The world is your oyster.

• When the pancakes are on the griddle, don't wait until the whole surface is dry and full of bubbles - this will make your pancakes dry and unpleasant.

• You can spice up your pancakes by adding cinnamon, nutmeg, or even lemon zest. Be creative and experiment!

• I like my pancake batter to be on the thicker side. You can adjust the milk quantity to achieve the consistency you like. The hydration of your starter will also play an important part in how thick your batter will be. If your starter is on the thicker side, you might want to add some more milk, if its on the thiner side, maybe you will have to adjust the flour amount. Follow visual cues depending on how you like your pancake batter.

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#pancakes #sourdough #sourdoughstarter #breakfast #brunch