Amazing Fluffy Overnight Sourdough Pancakes

Big family breakfast doesn’t get any easier, delicious, or nourishing than fluffy overnight sourdough pancakes. Today I take you along as we whip some up with fresh milled flour.

I don’t know if you feel the same, but sometimes…

The idea of starting to bake with sourdough can feel intimidating.

17 years ago when I began my sourdough journey, I thought maybe pancakes might be the easiest first recipe to try. I had been feeding my starter regularly and had lots of discard to use. A quick google search later, I was armed with a sourdough discard pancake recipe, and I got started.

All it took was one bite and we were hooked. They were delicious, easy to make, filling, and nourishing.  What more could I ask for? It’s no wonder that 17 years later I am still making them for my big family.

Pancakes require only a little forethought. The way I make them, you are essentially starting a big batch of “starter” the night before. This gets turned into pancakes the next morning. The key to getting light and fluffy overnight sourdough pancakes is managing the fermentation time. But you may be wondering…

Why ferment your pancakes overnight? And why are Yeastie Beasties your friends?

When you ferment your pancake batter overnight with sourdough starter, several things occur:

1. The fermentation process begins to break down a substance in bread called phytic acid. Phytic acid is found in almost every seed and it binds to minerals in your gut as you digest. It is often referred to as an “anti-nutrient.” By breaking down the phytic acid, those minerals are more available to your body, resulting in a more nourished body.
2. The fermentation process also produces more amino acids and peptides, including Brand Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) and lysine. It also breaks down existing proteins to make them more digestible. You get more bang for your buck by simply fermenting your baked goods with sourdough starter.
3. The fermentation process also produces B-vitamins. Naturally, as you cook your food, some vitamins are lost to heat. When you ferment your pancakes, you naturally increase the amount of B-vitamins in the end product because the fermentation increases the amount in there to begin with.
4. The fermentation process also adds flavor. Say no to bland food!

How we make overnight sourdough pancakes

Before I head to bed, using my Komo Mill XL Plus, I freshly mill my flour. I love hard red wheat for a hearty, almost nutty tasting pancake.  If you find you want something lighter in flavor, hard white wheat is the grain for you.

After grinding my grain I add in an equal amount of water and enough sourdough starter to be approximately a 1:5:5 feeding ratio. Stir well!  I mill my flour straight into my KitchenAid mixing bowl (which fits nicely under my grain mill spout). I place a plate on top of my bowl as a cover for the night and head to bed.

In the morning, using my KitchenAid flex edge beater, I slowly mix in our farm fresh eggs, organic olive oil, raw honey, sea salt, and baking soda. Always add the baking soda last. It will immediately react with your batter and create volume. It may make it difficult to stir well if your bowl is already close to capacity. At this point the batter is still pretty goopy and gloppy. This is a good thing! That means my pancakes will be light and fluffy.

Children in the kitchen

Adding ingredients to the bowl is always a great opportunity to involve children. I also don’t know a child who doesn’t love to flip pancakes! The more I involve my children in food preparation, the more likely they are to try what we make. And if they are in the kitchen, they’re not somewhere else getting into mischief.

There are a lot of practical reasons to encourage children working in the kitchen. Learning to cook is a major one. We all need to be able to feed ourselves. But they will also make mistakes and learn from them in a safe environment where you are there to help them.

Mixing up your pancakes

If I have to mix my pancake batter by hand, I find it helpful to combine the eggs, oil, honey, and salt separately. Mix them up really well, then pour this into the overnight mixture. At this point, you can stir this up with a stiff wooden spoon, but it requires patience. Your lovely gloopy batter will resist the mixing process at first.

Before I started using my KitchenAid stand mixer for this, I found the process went more quickly if I just put my hands right in that batter. Squeezing the dough to incorporate the ingredients is more efficient than stirring with a spoon.

Once your batter emulsifies and you can stir it well, add your baking soda. I typically pour my baking soda in through a fine mesh strainer. This prevents any baking soda chunks. My children make sure to announce it loudly at the table whenever anyone gets a bite with a clump of baking soda.

Cooking your overnight sourdough pancakes

Preheat your griddle to 325-350 degrees. You want to cook these pancakes low and slow.

You can butter your griddle before cooking, but with my non-stick ceramic Presto griddle I don’t have to oil it at all, which is nice. It’s one less thing I have to think about.

Using a ¼ cup measuring cup, I drop my batter onto the griddle from fairly high up. This is my attempt to make the goopy batter make round pancakes, ha!

The texture of the batter is a bit of a challenge to work with, but the extra work is worth it. Your overnight sourdough pancakes will be fluffy and truly fermented for easier digestion and increased nutritional benefit.

I cook the pancakes on the first side until the edges look very dry and you can see a lot of holes on the top of the pancake. Once flipped, they take about half as much time to finish up on the second side.

What to put on top of your overnight sourdough pancakes

Most days we keep it very simple. Butter & maple syrup are our go to toppings. When we’re feeling extra fancy, we may drop some chocolate chips on the pancakes as they are cooking. A little sprinkle of powdered sugar on top dresses things up nicely.

Scaling the recipe up or down

The recipe is kept intentionally simple so you can easily scale it up or scale it down to fit your family size.  As written, I will increase this recipe by 2.5 to feed my large crew of 12 here at home.
I hope you will decide to give these a try.  Please let me know what you like to top your pancakes with!