Erin shares her fluffy sourdough pancake recipe today. I love how she makes big pancakes in a full cast iron skillet. I’m definitely going to do that soon! –Wardeh
My boys enjoy sourdough pancakes pretty much every morning of the week; our favorite breakfast at the moment. This particular recipe and method is quick, easy, delicious, and nutritious, and it makes fluffy-beyond-your-wildest-dreams pancakes. I also love how I get all of my batter cooking at one time. Sitting WITH my family to eat breakfast is always fun!
This recipe is included in our Sourdough A to Z eBook and/or demonstrated on video in our Sourdough eCourse. We’re open for enrollment any time — please join us!
You may need to try this recipe a couple of times to perfect it (level of heat/cooking time…), but believe me when I say your efforts will be rewarded with smiles and empty plates. So good!
Oh-So-Fluffy Cast Iron Sourdough Pancakes
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons melted butter, coconut oil, or olive oil (not too hot)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (if using refined salt, might want to use a bit less)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons sweetener (honey, maple syrup, sucanat)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla or vanilla/almond combo (more or less or none at all)
- a generous sprinkle of spice (I use a self created spice blend– see below)
- 2 cups of sourdough starter (fed the night before– I feed mine an equal amount of water and flour, but it shouldn’t really matter.)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon water
- fresh or frozen fruit (optional)
- yogurt and maple syrup for serving (optional)
Begin by heating your cast iron skillet. I turn my electric burner to level 3 (of 11). I want my pan hot, but not too hot or the bottom of the pancake will burn. If you don’t get a perfect golden brown the first time you try this method, take note of what you did and make a change the next time. A golden fluffy-beyond-your-wildest-dreams pancake is worth every effort!
While the skillet is heating, take a medium size bowl and whisk together melted coconut oil/butter or olive oil, egg, salt, sweetener of choice, extract of choice, and spices of choice. Pour in two cups of sourdough starter that has been fed the night before you want to make the pancakes. Stir well with whisk. Set aside.
In a small cup combine 1 tablespoon of water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Set aside. (not pictured)
Take a bit of butter or coconut oil and grease the bottom and sides of your hot cast iron skillet.
Pour the water/soda mixture into your waiting pancake batter. Quickly stir to incorporate.
Pour the batter into your waiting skillet. How much? Oh, I don’t know for sure. Maybe an inch thick… maybe a touch more? Out of my batter, I make one large and one small cast iron pancake and two griddle pancakes.
I would not recommend letting unused batter sit while you wait for your skillet pancake to finish. You might want to make one skillet pancake and finish the rest of the batter off as regular pancakes. (Or give the wait a try and let me know how it turns out!)
Now, watch for bubbles. I let mine cook for 4-5 minutes on the stove.
If you choose, now is the time to add fresh or frozen fruit. Give the fruit a little push to sink them down into the batter.
Toward the end of this initial cook time, I turn on the broiler. Finish your pancake off by placing it in the oven. Do not use the very top shelf; the second or third shelf will work best. Remember, your pancake bottom will continue to cook while the top cooks and browns.
Remove from oven once tops are golden, and flip out onto a cooling rack. They are ready to dress, serve, and enjoy!
A Couple of Notes
* I like to serve my pancakes topped with homemade yogurt and maple syrup or fresh/frozen fruit. I feel we use less sweetener that way.
* We use a pizza cutter to slice the leftover pancakes into wedges. Perfect morning snack or take along treat in the car/stroller.
* My husband and boys enjoy the leftovers plain, straight from the fridge or toasted warm.
* They make an excellent base for nut butter and jam or honey.
* The cast iron pancakes are literally 4 times fluffier (at least) than my griddle pancakes. I just shake my head when I think about it. Delicious!
My Mixed Spice Blend
- 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
About Erin
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This is a great variation of the original Alaskan sourdough hots! thanks so much! Be sure to add the soda very last minute and have a big enough bowl!
Hi Teri- Hope you enjoy them! We made pancakes again this morning. Delicious!
I made these this morning and they are absolutely delicious! I burned the bottom a little, so I still need to work the temperatures out, but this will definitely be a keeper for us. My husband especially enjoyed them. Thanks for a great recipe!
Oh, these were sooo delicious! I made them yesterday with some rye sourdough starter that I didn’t find the time to make bread with. Just wonderful! We all wished we had more, so I’ll have to do 1 1/2 or double recipe next time
My favorite was putting a mixture of 1/2 plain yogurt and 1/2 vanilla yogurt on the pancake, topped with nuts and seeds (fruit would be good too) ~ it was just like dessert!
Our cast iron skillets must not be seasoned very well, because I had trouble getting them out; I’ll have to work on that.
Thanks so much! Can I post this on my facebook page? I have friends who would love this!
Kara- So glad you gave the pancakes a try! When I started making these, my bottoms were a bit darker than I liked as well. The heat is one thing you could adjust, but I found leaving the stove for the broiler sooner also helped. Because of the cast iron, the bottom will continue to cook while the top is broiling. Thanks for the comment!
Peg- What a wonderful comment to wake up to this morning! So glad you found the pancakes delicious! And I agree with you, the right toppings do make them taste like a dessert! Imagine strawberries and fresh whipped cream layered between and on top of a double decker pancake. Oh mercy!
As far as the sticking, make sure you spread the bottom and sides with butter just before you pour in the batter. And, feel free to post this on your fb page. Thanks for asking, and thanks for the comment! 
Mmmm, good suggestion on the strawberries/cream, Erin! Thanks and many blessings! Off to post this on Facebook
P.S. This was so good, I told my dh that I would feed and care for a starter just for these pancakes! LOL
I made these with brown rice sourdough. They were soooo good. I’m the only one home today, so I halved the recipe — but I ate every last crumb! I didn’t have any eggs, so I added ground flax. I topped it with butter, almond butter, and a little sorghum syrup. I’ll be making these again this weekend. Thanks so much!
Kelly- So glad you were able to make these pancakes work for you. Your topping combination sounds delish!
Erin, I just tried this recipe this morning, they turned out pretty good, but they were pretty wet/oily and not really fluffy at all. Any thoughts? Also, I put blueberries into the big cast iron pan, and did try to push them down into the batter a bit, but when I flipped the cake onto the cooling rack, I had a little blueberry explosions mess since they were more so on the top. I tried to slide the cake out of the pan but no luck there. I’m mostly sad about them not being fluffy… my stater wasn’t too runny, it was nice and bubbly. Any help would be great! I’ll have to keep on trying
Hi Erin,
We made these for the second time this morning and they were awesome! Best pancakes ever. Thanks so much for sharing
Oh, also, do you have any suggestions on where to get a good cast-iron skillet? We just made the griddle pancakes both times.
Thanks!
Hi Carrie- I’m sorry to hear your pancakes didn’t turn out just right. Let’s see… Just wondering a couple of things…
*Did you feed your sourdough a sufficient amount the night before making the pancakes?
*Did you heat your cast iron first and then butter it just before pouring in your batter?
*Did you put the baking soda in at the very end, give it a quick all around stir and then pour immediately into your hot and greased cast iron?
*Did it gain any height while cooking on the stove top? The baking soda should have caused it to rise.
*Because the blueberries get a bit soft in the hot batter and under the broiler, it’s best to flip a fruity pancake onto a plate. It should fall out nicely because the cast iron has been buttered before hand.
Keep me posted! I want you to see how fluffy these can get!
Thanks for the response, Erin!
I fed it enough to have at least 2 cups for the recipe, but I did notice that I only was left with maybe a scant 1/2 cup of my starter. As long as I had some left, and as long as I had the amount for the recipe, I’m assuming it wouldn’t affect the pancakes, right?
Actually, the cast-iron pancake was pleasantly fluffy, it was more so the regular pancakes that were so flat and seemed more soggy/wet/oily. Maybe I used too much oil on my griddle?
I did put the baking soda in at the very end and quickly stirred and poured them out onto my pans. But again, got very little height on my regular pancakes on my griddle and other pan (cast-iron cake was good though!)
Thanks for the tip on flipping the blueberry pancake onto a plate instead of cooling rack… it should have been pretty obvious to me but I followed the directions exactly and just hoped it wouldn’t be messy. Oh well, still yummy to eat up the blueberry mess on my (clean!) counter!
I think I’m going to try this recipe later today with my “homemade” starter that is now 5 days old. The one I used for my first try was with a starter that I got off cultureforhealth a couple months ago that had not been cared for very well at first (I needed this ecourse at that time!) which I had then passed onto my mother-in-law and then later asked her to have some back again (for this ecourse!)… oh the fun it will be to compare the two and how they perform! Do you think that my lack of proper care for this starter back a couple months ago (which still does bubbly great now after my MIL cared for it so lovingly lately!) would affect its performance now?
Sorry for the long comment….
-Carrie
Thanks again Erin and Wardeh for all your help! SO thankful for you both!
I’m taking the sourdough course and tried these tonight. YUM! A double batch did not last long in this house! I even purchased the cast iron pan specifically to try this and to make the tortillas next week.
Just wanted to mention that I did wait on my cast iron pan for the second batch and it came out just fine, maybe a little crispier, which was fine with me. This will become a favorite in the house, I’m sure.
Leslie
Momma of 11
Leslie- So glad you enjoy the pancakes. As a momma of eleven, I can see how a double batch doesn’t last long in your house!
Happy to hear you’ve gotten yourself a cast iron pan. My favorite piece of kitchen equipment! 
Bonnie- Yeah! Makes me smile to know you are enjoying the pancakes! As far as locating cast iron… I always keep my eye open at thrift stores for one. REI sells Lodge brand cast iron if you live near an REI store. Craig’s List is another place where I keep my eye open. I think I even saw Lodge at our local Fred Meyer. Good luck finding one. Is it crazy that a skillet can bring such joy and blessing?
Carrie- Thanks for you comment! I thought of one more thing you could try… The night before you want to make your pancake, feed your starter a little more flour so it’s just a bit thicker. The griddle ones are not going to be as thick as the skillet ones, but if you work with a thicker batter, you might get a little more lift. Keep me posted! Oh, and I think either of your starters should work great for this recipe.
I made these this morning and ‘wow’ed my girls, they were amazed at the size and loved them, I felt my starter was runny also when I pulled it out last night and I added almost a cup of oats to help that and make oatmeal pancakes…I made mine on my cast iron pizza pan -I think it is a 14 in. I’ve gotten a lot of cast iron at Lehman’s General Store. It is located in Ohio (somewhere). When visiting my husband’s relatives, I got a cast iron wok and then when Rob went hunting in Ohio last year he came home with the pizza pan for me. What a blessing! I love cast iron!!!!!!
Anyway, Lehman’s has a website you could look up. They’ve got a bunch of neat, odd things!
Great pancake Erin!
Hi Erin,
Thanks for this great recipe! I made it this morning for a nice weekend, Daddy-is-home breakfast for a Daddy who just happens to be very sourdough-suspicious!! I made it with whole bananas I’d frozen in summer (I’m in Australia!) pushed down into the pancake and topped it with a banana caramel sauce I made (butter, evaporated cane sugar and mashed bananas cooked together in a small saucepan) and natural yogurt on the side.
“Daddy” had seconds and said it was great, so did my nearly 4-year-old son, and my nearly 2 daughter ate it with lots of happy “mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmm” noises!
Toni- So glad you enjoyed the pancakes, and thanks for the Lehman’s tip!
Anita- Oh my! Your banana pancakes sound divine! So glad your sourdough-suspicious husband, son, and daughter loved them, too! Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for the smile!
Hi Erin,
I am wanting to try this recipe out tomorrow morning for breakfast but I just realized I’m out of eggs
Do you think it would be OK if I substituted the egg for some mashed ripe banana? I could also use apple sauce if you think that might work better…
hazelaid mama- Go ahead and try substituting 1/4 c. applesauce or 1/2 a banana for the egg. It’s definitely worth a try, and you may end up creating your best ever pancake! Enjoy!
I ended up subbing 1/2 a ripe banana for the egg (which ended up being a whole banana since I was doubling the recipe) and though it had a pleasant taste, it didn’t cook quite right. I don’t have a cast iron skillet but I do have a stainless steel pan that can go in the oven (Salad Master with removable handles) so I doused it with butter and followed the recipe as indicated. The only other difference is I put in frozen berries at the time suggested in the recipe. It never cooked through even though I left it quite a bit longer than it should have needed in theory. The taste was still delicious but it did not look like your picture a all…much more gooey in the center. I even flipped it over and returned it to the oven to try to cook some of the goo out
(That helped marginally) I’m wondering if the frozen berries & the banana just added too much liquid to the batter. I cooked up some on the griddle with and without berries and they were pretty good (less gooey but also a lot thinner). Do you think the problem is with the pan (i.e. not being cast iron) or the banana/berry combo? I definitely intend on trying again with eggs and omitting the berries to see how it works because the taste was quite good. Thanks for all your help!
Severine
Severine- Sorry to hear about all the goo! I look forward to you trying them with the egg and no berries. Feed your starter a bit more flour than water the feeding before you make pancakes. A thicker batter works best. I think you are right as far as the added wet ingredients… sounds like it was a bit too much for the pancake batter.
Hi Erin,
Thanks for the recipe! I loved the idea of sitting down with my family for pancakes. I’m sorry to say I found one flaw with it when I tried it a few days ago. We made them for lunch and between my four girls (all 5 and under) and I we didn’t have enough! We warmed up some frozen fruit with about 1/4 cup of maple syrup for the topping, added some sausage on the side. There were no leftovers to speak of. I still need to tweak the temps on my gas grill but we’ll definitely be making these again soon.
Thanks!
Katie
I think i am going to try the skillet cake instead of just the pancakes and do up a ton while the kids are out
then I will have extra for lunches and hubby… though i doubt even that will last for long!
I am working an awful 1 am shift and this is just the kind of go food for me
Teri recently posted… Vote for the goats!
I found your recipe through GNOWFGLINS and I am so happy I did! We are new to sourdough at home and eat pancakes often. I have tried a few different recipes now and I have to say yours is the best! Thank you for a delicious breakfast!
We tried them today and will try tomorrow as well
We just used 1tsp honey and they tasted great, probably because we’re not used to eat too many sweet foods. Thanks!
My Mother used to make us skillet pancakes, only she would put butter, brown sugar and sunflower seeds in the bottom of the pan. It would come out with a caramel like crust with yummy caramelized seeds. I’ve done it for my kids with rapadura instead of brown sugar, and also I have tried it with coconut instead of the seeds. Both are great.
I also put a lid on top while it ‘bakes’ and it goes much faster. I never broiled it. We just flipped it over and ignored the white side. The lid allowed it to bake enough. But I might add, with the sugar added you have to cook it slower or it will burn. My mom used to cook it in one of those old square electric skillets (I don’t even know if they sell them anymore) so hers never burned.
AWESOME!!! My first attempt with my starter was a total success. I blessed my wife and son with smell of them cooking as they awoke, they came out just as stated in recipe. I am building up my starter , bought a 8 cup Pyrex measuring cup, new home for my critters. My son asked if we should name it, I told him that were too many to name : )
thanks, and mostly I’m glad you’re loving the Lord, we are too here in Wisconsin. I said, let’s go visit them sometime!! I love Alaska, and that you are there. blessings in Him…