Once I established a viable sourdough starter, I needed to find some things to use it in besides bread. I love baking and eating bread, but its not something that I can fit into my schedule very often.

Pancakes are my first simple non-bread use for the starter. They take a little bit of planning ahead — you need to add flour to the starter the night before and let it sit out overnight — but the final mixing of the batter takes just a minute.

I keep my starter in the refrigerator between bread projects and I have found that using starter straight out of the refrigerator works fine for this recipe — no multi-day refreshment is needed.

I’m generally not much of pancake person, but I like these a lot. They are fluffy, tender and have a nice sour tang. Typically I make two half-recipes using a different flour in each one. This weekend, for example, I made a half batch with buckwheat flour (so the starter contained 125 g starter, 75 g water, and 50 g buckwheat flour) and a half batch with Bob’s Red Mill corn flour and some Full Belly Farms corn meal.

Sourdough Pancakes
Adapted from “Breads from the La Brea Bakery,” by Nancy Silverton

For the starter
250 g batter-type sourdough starter (About 1 cup. See notes below.)
150 g water (About 2/3 cup.)
100 g flour (About 3/4 cup. See notes below.)

For the pancakes
The starter from above
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 eggs
3 T. oil
1 T. sweetener (maple syrup, honey, sugar, etc.)

Start the night before by combining the ingredients for the starter. Stir or whisk until well mixed. Leave at room temperature overnight.

Pass the salt, baking powder, and baking soda through a fine mesh into a small bowl to remove clumps.

Stir the starter, then add the eggs, oil, and sweetener. Mix in the dry ingredients.

Cook on a lightly oiled griddle or skillet.

Notes:

• The sourdough starter used in this recipe is a thin “batter type” starter, with the consistency of pancake batter, not a “levain type” stiff starter.
• Try experimenting with different flours like buckwheat, whole wheat, kamut, or amaranth.