Light and fluffy fresh milled flour pancakes from sourdough discard

What makes these fresh milled flour pancakes so good?

These honey-sweetened sourdough pancakes are so light, fluffy, and delicious. You might have trouble believing they are 100% whole grain and very healthy!

The best pancakes made from fresh milled flour are ones that have the batter soaked or rested. Soaking (or fermenting, in this case) allows the bran in the grain to soften and the gluten to relax, to make a softer, fluffier pancake.

By making these pancakes from sourdough discard, not only do you get the benefit of soaking the fresh milled flour, but the flour gets fermented at the same time, which converts the phytic acid in whole grain flour to make the most nutritious pancakes.

Sourdough fermentation makes the grain more digestible too.

Another benefit of making pancakes with sourdough discard is that you can just quickly mix up some intentional sourdough discard last thing at night, and the then next day decide what to do with it: you can use it like any ripe sourdough starter to make bread, or you can make these pancakes, or make any other recipe from my free sourdough discard cookbook.

There’s no need to fuss about mixing exactly the right ingredients like you would if you made the whole pancake batter overnight – just mix the flour, water, and some sourdough starter, and then the next day you can save a little starter for next time, add the rest of the ingredients, and enjoy fluffiest, most delicious pancakes with minimal effort.

Don’t have a sourdough starter? Follow my starter instructions and you’ll quickly get one going.

Flour options

You can use any kind of sourdough discard to make these pancakes: wheat, spelt, einkorn, emmer, Khorasan, rye, even gluten-free flours such as buckwheat, rice, and sorghum will make beautiful pancakes.

The most important thing to be aware of when making this recipe is that your discard is at the right hydration – 100% hydration (equal weights of flour and water) is perfect. If you usually feed your starter at a different hydration, you may need to add a dash more flour or a dash more water to get it to the right consistency.

How to get the right amount of sourdough discard

If you don’t already have sourdough discard on hand, you can easily get enough sourdough discard for this recipe: simply feed a small amount of your sourdough starter with 125g each of flour and water (or half a cup of water and a scant 1 cup of flour to make the batch size below) and leave it to ferment overnight. The next day, simply remove a small amount of starter for your next batch, and then use all the discard in this recipe.

How to get the fluffiest pancakes

• Don’t overmix! Add the eggs, baking soda, honey, butter, and cinnamon all in one go, and gently mix it through with a fork until just combined, not any longer.
• Gently add a dash more water to the batter if it seems very thirsty.
• Finding the right temperature is the key to the best pancakes – too hot and your pancakes will get burned on the outside before the inside is set, too cool and they won’t rise up as much. Medium heat is best.
• I find it easiest to work with small pancakes rather than full-pan pancakes. It’s easier to handle them more delicately and flip them while keeping the bubbles intact. Try cooking 3 or 4 small pancakes in a skillet instead of one large one.

Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Discard Pancake Recipe

Ingredients (serves 2)

250g sourdough starter at 100% hydration (1 cup)

2 medium or large eggs, whisked

1/2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)

35g honey, melted (1 1/2 Tbsp)

35g butter, melted (2 Tbsp)

Tiny dash of vanilla and/or cinnamon

Method 

Mix all ingredients together. 

Heat a frypan over medium heat and melt a tiny bit of butter in it, moving it around with a spatula to coat the base. 

When the butter and pan are hot, drop some batter into the pan to make pancakes, spreading each one out gently, without pressing down, so that it ends up being around 1⁄4” to 1⁄2” (1⁄2 cm to 1 cm) thick. 

Cook one side until bubbles are all the way through and the top appears no longer liquidy, this will take two to three minutes. Flip over and cook for around one minute longer, until the other side is lightly browned in places. 

Serve hot with butter, and some maple syrup or honey. 

Cooking tips

If your butter is cold and you want to serve these with melting soft butter, 30 seconds after flipping the pancakes, top them with a slice of cold butter – the butter will start to melt as the pancake finishes cooking and you’ll be rewarded with melting butter perfection.

Troubleshooting

• Batter too thick? Add a dash of milk or water, keeping in mind that the batter should still be quite thick (the thickness helps with the fluffy texture).
• Pancakes spreading out too much in the pan? Add a dash more flour to the batter.
• Pancakes not rising up enough in the pan? Make sure the baking soda was freshly added, and the pan is properly pre-heated before you add the batter. The baking soda/sourdough reaction is what causes the bubbles in these fluffy pancakes, and this reaction gets slowed over time – so be sure only to add the baking soda right before you’re ready to cook.

Free sourdough discard cookbook

This pancake recipe is from my free whole grain sourdough discard cookbook, which also has recipes for pies, cakes, pasta, bread, rolls, and more:

Free sourdough discard cookbook

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