Rye sourdough pancakes: Updated with pictures and alt methods for non-sourdough

[Major Nikon]

Last edited Thu Apr 4, 2013, 12:16 PM - Edit history (3)

When I was a kid, my dad used to make sourdough pancakes. His recipe has been lost to time, so I decided to take a stab at developing my own recipe. I was astounded as to how well this turned out. This was really more of an experiment. Since I am using 25% rye flour and fermenting overnight, I expected the result would be a very dense pancake. To my great surprise the opposite was true. The pancakes rose well on the griddle and the result was a light and fluffy pancake that has a lot more flavor than any pancake leavened with baking powder. The rye flour adds a bit of structure, so the pancakes also stay light after cooking instead of deflating a bit after you take them off the griddle. I actually doubled this recipe so I could have next day pancakes tomorrow. After doubling the recipe I made 10 large pancakes with enough batter left over to make about 3 more perhaps, so I'm estimating the single recipe yield to be about 6 large pancakes. Just a small amount of real maple syrup goes great with these and I highly recommend it.

My daughter has a friend sleeping over, so the litmus test was to see how well they liked it. They loved it and my daughter said she wants to have them again.

This recipe assumes you are feeding your starter daily. I always feed mine in the morning. If you are storing your starter in the refrigerator and not feeding it daily, you may want to get started a day or two earlier and leave your starter out at room temperature and feed daily for a day or two to revitalize it.

Ingredients:
150g a/p white flour
50g rye flour (You can substitute whole wheat or white flour if desired)
200g water
200g starter

3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/2 tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
56g melted butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Feed your starter in the morning as usual. About 8 hours after feeding and about 8-12 hours prior to cooking, mix all the flour, water, and starter well inside a large mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and store in a warm (70-75F) place overnight. The colder your kitchen is, the earlier you need to mix the overnight ferment.

The next morning preheat your griddle and mix all the remaining ingredients well in a separate mixing bowl. Combine everything together and use a folding action to mix the batter using a spatula or your hand. You will lose some of the bubbles you developed overnight during mixing, but the idea is to keep as many of them as possible for a lighter pancake. This will take a few minutes, especially if you used rye flour, but be patient and resist the urge to use a whisk or electric mixer. Once all the ingredients are combined, the batter is ready for the griddle.

Yield: 6 large (7&quot pancakes

One big advantage to using sourdough is the result will keep better than pancakes made without a natural yeast ferment. Just cover them and leave them out at room temperature like you would any other bread. They should keep fine for 3-4 days.

UPDATE: Substitution suggestions for those who want to use commercial yeast in lieu of sourdough

For the sourdough, substitute 1/8th tsp instant or Rapid-rise yeast, 100g more water and 100g more flour. Do not use active-dry yeast.
Cut the baking soda down to 1 tsp.

Keep in mind that I've never tried doing it this way for flat breads, so you're in somewhat uncharted territory. Sourdough makes for a more acidic batter, so you're going to get more action from the baking soda. This is why I specified to cut the baking soda down. You might want to add just a 1/2 tsp or so of cream of tartar to the final mix to hedge your bet. Mix it in at the very last, sprinkling it over the batter and mix it in that way.

[locks]

1. Brings back yummy memories

One of our mountain towns used to have a huge pancake breakfast. Men were the cooks; it was a very old sourdough recipe, the melt in your mouth best I ever had. They gave out the recipe but mine never came out that good. I'm going to try yours. Thanks

[Major Nikon]

2. One detail not mentioned in the recipe

For the overnight ferment, you want the final mix temperature to be about 79F. I used water that was 85F which yielded a final mix temperature of 80F. The final mix temperature is important, because along with ambient temperature it affects the time involved to reach the peak activity for the ferment which is what you're after. When the volume has at least doubled and lots of bubbles are coming up you know it's ready. It will smell a bit like beer. You want this period to be reached no sooner than about the 8 hour point. If there's lots of bubbles, some of those are going to stay in the batter and leaven the pancakes once they hit the griddle. The baking soda will mix with the slightly acidic batter to produce more bubbles, so you get a double action effect.

I suspect this recipe will do well even if you up the whole grain to 50%. On later batches I will try that.

[Lucinda]

3. Thanks for the recipe!

I love rye and sourdough, sounds like a fun experiment mixing them!

[Major Nikon]

5. The rye is completely optional

I like working with various whole wheat flours and rye is my favorite. Whole wheat flour has lots of sharp edges at the microscopic level, so you don't get as many large bubbles and as much leavening (which is kind of a good thing for this recipe). I also just like the taste of rye and I think it adds a lot to pancakes.

One change I made to the recipe is to sift the baking soda. On the first batch I got a little chunk in the final pancake and it made one bite taste dog awful.

I made this recipe again today and this time I used my hand to do all the mixing both for the ferment and the final batter. I think it works better that way. Rye is really sticky so you might want to use a rubber glove.

[Lucinda]

7. I've played a little with different flours, but not as much as I would have liked.

Maybe I'll get the urge to bake again soon, especially since winter weather keeps hanging on.

[Major Nikon]

4. Pictures

This is what my overnight ferment looked like after 14 hours in a 69F kitchen. I haven't mixed the final batter yet. The volume has nearly tripled with plenty of bubbles visible on the surface.




Here is what it looks like on my cast iron griddle:




Here is the finished product:

[Lucinda]

6. Gorgeous.

And now I am twice as hungry as I was before I clicked on this!

[livetohike]

8. Thanks for the recipe and pics

Going to make some soon.

[yellerpup]

9. I just bought buckwheat flour.

Do you think that this recipe might make the best blini ever?

[Major Nikon]

10. I have some buckwheat flour

Eventually I'll get around to using that as a substitution.

[yellerpup]

11. I've never baked with it before.

Would the proportions be approximately the same as your recipe using rye? I love the way you write about cooking, especially your ability to explain the chemistry. Very cool

[Major Nikon]

12. First try I would just substitute it directly

Most different types of flours can be substituted directly as far as hydration levels go. Occassionally small changes to hydration are necessary. Buckwheat has no gluten, so it's best to keep it at 25% or less in terms of flour content, however for a pancake it's not going to matter as much because you are not really building much gluten in the first place.

[yellerpup]

13. Thanks very much.

I'll give it a try!