Praise the heavens! These pancakes were two weeks in the making. And it all started with.. well.. forgive me.. a starter.

It turns out that a sourdough starter, a mixture of flour, water, bacteria and yeast, makes some pretty stellar pancakes. The cakes came out slightly thin, nicely browned and light as air. The starter and baking soda combination created insanely porous and light pancakes. The flavor? Combine sourdough bread and pancakes. Delicious. Super delicious. The slightly sour pancakes are perfectly complimented with maple syrup and sweet strawberries.

If you’ve followed along with me on my starter adventure, I hope you’ll try these pancakes. Jump on over. There are a few things you should know about this wacky pancake mix.

If you have no idea what’s going on, here’s a link to a link to all the sourdough starter madness.

It would seem that many things having to do with sourdough starters are an overnight process. These pancakes are no exception. For weekend pancakes, you’ll need to start you batter on Friday or Saturday night.

When combining a cup of starter with additional water and flour for the pancake, use a bowl with plenty of room. Your starter will grow a few times during the pancake making process. Make sure your bowl is made of glass or plastic. Metal does funny things that don’t agree with your starter.

Once you’ve removed the necessary amount of starter for the pancake batter, feed your original starter with a cup of water and a cup of flour, stir, cover and return to the fridge for your next sourdough adventure.

Heat a griddle and grease as you normally would for cooking up pancakes. I have to admit, it took me several rounds of pancake mistakes before I got the knack of cooking these beauties. My batter was pretty thin, maybe because my starter was thin, so it took a bit of practice to get a handle of the cooking. Not to worry, this recipe produces enough batter for a few rounds of mistakes.

Go on! Enjoy some pancakes. Let me know what you think?

I think it’s time for the real deal. Sourdough bread will be next.

Sourdough Pancakes

recipe from Glass House

Print this recipe!

Night before:

Mix 1 cup of starter, 1.5 cups warm water, 2.5 cups flour (a mix of white and wheat is good) cover with foil and let stand overnight. I put mine in the oven with the light on; it’s the perfect temp. The next morning:

Mix 1 egg, 2/3 cup milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Whisk into the mixture from the night before, let stand for five minute and drop onto griddle. Try them served with warm maple syrup and fresh strawberries and blueberries.

This Sourdough Starter project is turning out to be an ordeal.  I don’t think it’s the starters fault.  It’s only a simple mixture of flour and water.  I think the ordeal came in when I became mostly obsessed with my starter.  See,  I took my starter out of the fridge yesterday to feed it, and hopefully make delicious sourdough pancakes in spite of my ridiculously busy schedule.

The starter sat on my counter untouched, and just as it came out of the fridge, the hooch had separated from the rest of the starter.  No big deal, right?  Well, it was no big deal until, at room temperature, my starter started to bubble!

AAAHHHHH!  Seriously!  I was totally not prepared for this!  I was not expecting little bubbles to come up from the bottom of my starter, reach the top and burst.  I am simultaneously horrified and fascinated.  I couldn’t tear myself away from my starter all night.  It was so creepy.  I think I would scream in excitement and disgust every time I took another peek.

Granted, I don’t have photo documentation of this.  You just have to be there to be totally freaked out by it.

Now, I have no idea if this is normal.  My starter smells sour but not totally icky and well…. I think it’s alive.

Are your starters marinating in the fridge?

Here is a sneak peak of the sourdough pancake recipe I’m using.  It’s another overnight deal.  I suppose that this whole process isn’t for the faint of heart.  It requires a serious love for pancakes.  And after all this, would you believe that I’m too lazy to make cinnamon rolls!?  That just doesn’t make any sense at all.

If you missed the whole Sourdough Starter extravaganza, you can catch up here:

Sourdough Starter: the beginning

Sourdough Starter: day one

Sourdough Starter:  day two and three

Sourdough Starter: day four and five

Sourdough Starter:  takes a break in the fridge

Here’s the Sourdough Pancake recipe I’m going to finish up tomorrow.  So far, one cup of the starter is marinating with more flour and water on my counter.  I can already see it puffing a bit with gasses.  Tomorrow I’ll add eggs, milk, sugar, and baking soda and call it pancake batter.

With the remainder of my starter, I added one cup of water and one cup of flour, stirred it and threw it back in the fridge.  I’ve had all the bubbling I can take for one week.

Sourdough Pancakes

recipe from Glass House

Night before:

Mix 1 cup of starter, 1.5 cups warm water, 2.5 cups flour (a mix of white and wheat is good) cover with foil and let stand overnight. I put mine in the oven with the light on; it’s the perfect temp. The next morning:

Mix 1 egg, 2/3 cup milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Whisk into the mixture from the night before, let stand for five minute and drop onto griddle. I love ‘em with blueberries. Seriously, these are awesome, they’ll spoil you from bisquick cakes for life.