Ditch the store bought box of pancake mix filled with questionable ingredients and hard to pronounce preservatives. Soft, fluffy, AND delicious, these freshly milled sourdough pancakes will change your mind about whole wheat grains! You can’t even taste them in this recipe. Mix, let it rest, spoon into the pan, and serve up your cakes with real butter and maple syrup for a breakfast treat your family will adore and request often! Bonus: this batch makes enough for today and some to save for tomorrow.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough discard
- 1 cup milk
- 3/4 cup buttermilk (regular milk + 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar + 3 minutes of time)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or oil of choice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups freshly milled soft white berries (Azure has the best)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or sift an additional 1/2 cup freshly milled flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
How to make freshly milled sourdough pancakes
Mill and rest
To start, take time to mill the wheat berries. I’ll be honest here: I do not measure. I just pour wheat berries into my NutriMill and let it mill into a 4 cup measuring cup until it is 2 cups’ worth of freshly milled flour. The internet suggests 2/3 cup of wheat berries will yield about 1 cup of flour. It is best to weigh in grams, though. One ounce of wheat berries yields one ounce of flour.
For the sake of most of the readers here wanting measurements, that’s how I will write this recipe. Do the best you can! It’s hard to mess this recipe up.
Mix sourdough discard, regular milk, buttermilk (if you need to make buttermilk it is simply 3/4 regular milk plus 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar and let it sit for about 3-5 minutes, it will be clumpy), vanilla extract, eggs, and oil together.
Then, in the same bowl, add in the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. Use a whisk to mix it all together well. Some lumps are okay. This batter will be bubbly!
Now allow the batter to sit for anywhere from 15-60 minutes, depending on how much time you have. Rest time helps freshly milled grains to soak up moisture before cooking them. This helps the freshly milled pancakes not to seem so dry once cooked.
Time to cook
When time is up, heat your stove top to medium-low heat. Place your skillet on the eye to heat and allow it to get toasty warm before pouring on batter. Using a cast iron skillet is a great option if you have one.
Now, grease your hot skillet with a tablespoon of butter or bacon grease. Then pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into your hot skillet.
Allow the pancake to cook on one side for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the surface is mostly bubbles. Then flip your pancake and allow it to cook on the other side for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown to your version of perfection.
Keep cakes warm by using the oven on its lowest temp setting (around 170 degrees F) on a plate or cooking sheet until ready to serve.
If you like chocolate chip or blueberry pancakes, after pouring the batter into the skillet, add some chips or berries to the top. Then flip like normal to cook the other side.
Serve up your freshly milled sourdough pancakes with real butter and maple syrup or drizzle on some homemade strawberry jam.
What if I cannot use eggs?
If you cannot tolerate eggs, you can substitute the 2 eggs in this recipe with 1/2 cup yogurt. See more swaps below!
Can this recipe be made vegan or vegetarian?
Surely, it can.
To be honest, I have no experience with making these freshly milled sourdough pancakes vegan, plant-based, or vegetarian BUT it’s all a simple swap of the ingredients and then playing around with them until you like the texture.
Here are some options for replacing the 2 eggs:
- 2/3 cup applesauce
- 2 TBSP cornstarch + 6 TBSP warm water mixed together
- 2 TBSP flax or chia seeds + 3 TBSP water mixed together
- 2 overly ripe bananas mashed
Here is how to swap the milk:
- use whatever milk you prefer: soy, oat, coconut
Why will my family adore these freshly milled sourdough pancakes?
- it’s a morning sweet treat. What’s NOT to love?
- mostly whole grains used = health benefits of REAL flour
- this batter can make over 20 pancakes (Mom, you’ll love to cook once and have breakfast for at least 2 days)
- kid-friendly! This recipe can be whipped up by kids in kitchen training.
- homeschool lessons- math, science, art, home economics, and language arts with the benefits of a delicious breakfast after!
- flexibility to customize this recipe (add cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, chocolate chips, blueberries, extra scoop of powdered protein or two, and more!)
Does the sourdough starter need to be active?
The sourdough starter for this recipe is best used if it is a discard, meaning not active; however, it is totally okay to use if your sourdough starter is active.
I have done this plenty of times while starting a morning loaf of sourdough then wanting to use up the rest of the discard before saving a smidge for a new active starter jar. Active starter does not affect this recipe unless you leave the batter to sit for much longer time as that will encourage more fermentation.
Take a gander at my Weekly Baking Rhythm with sourdough.
How to store freshly milled sourdough pancakes
Storing freshly milled sourdough pancakes is simple.
Place any extra pancakes not eaten day of cooking in a container of your choice and into the refrigerator. Pancakes are best eaten within 3 days.
To freeze freshly milled sourdough pancakes, store them in any freezer safe container you choose in the freezer. These pancakes will last 3 months frozen appropriately. If storing for long term, consider wrapping the pancakes in parchment paper before placing inside container. This will add an additional safe layer from freezer burning.
To reheat, simply heat in the oven at 250 degrees F on a cooking sheet for approximately 10 minutes or in a skillet on the stove top, flipping each cake several times until warmed over. This could be about 5 minutes. If you use a microwave, then use that to reheat.
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Freshly Milled Flour Sourdough Pancakes
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- To start, take time to mill the wheat berries. I’ll be honest here: I do not measure. I just pour wheat berries into my NutriMill and let it mill into a 4 cup measuring cup until it is 2 cups’ worth of freshly milled flour. The internet suggests 2/3 cup of wheat berries will yield about 1 cup of flour. It is best to weigh in grams, though. For the sake of most of the readers here wanting measurements, that’s how I will write this recipe. Do the best you can! It’s hard to mess this recipe up.
- Mix sourdough discard, regular milk, buttermilk (if you need to make buttermilk it is simply 3/4 regular milk plus 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar and let it sit for a few minutes), vanilla extract, eggs, and oil together.
- Then, in the same bowl, add in the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. Use a whisk to mix it all together well. Some lumps are okay. This batter will be bubbly! Now allow the batter to sit for anywhere from 15-60 minutes, depending on how much time you have. It helps freshly milled grains to soak up moisture before cooking them. This helps the freshly milled pancakes not to seem so dry.
- When time is up, heat your stove top to medium-low heat. Place your skillet on the eye to heat and allow it to get toasty warm before pouring on batter. Using a cast iron skillet is a great option if you have one.
- Now, grease your hot skillet with a tablespoon of butter or bacon grease. Then pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into your hot skillet.
- Allow the pancake to cook on one side for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the surface is mostly bubbles. Then flip your pancake and allow it to cook on the other side for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown to your version of perfection.
- Keep cakes warm by using the oven on its lowest temp setting (around 170 degrees F) on a plate or cooking sheet until ready to serve.
- If you like chocolate chip or blueberry pancakes, after pouring the batter into the skillet, add some chips or berries to the top. Then flip like normal to cook the other side.
