Sourdough Banana Pancakes
Hello friends! Today we are making Sourdough Banana Pancakes! They are super easy to make, and a great way to use up your sourdough discard!
Do you have a sourdough starter? Well if you do, you know one of the best practices of having a sourdough starter and keeping it healthy and alive, is to feed it frequently.
I keep my sourdough starter Roxy in the fridge for the most part, and feed it about once a week or so.
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However, sometimes I’m in a bit of a bread baking kick, and when that happens, I keep Roxy on my counter, and feed her everyday, sometimes twice a day, depending on the weather, on how fast the starter is activating and collapsing.
Whenever I am feeding my starter everyday, I end up with a lot of sourdough discard. And it can be really fun to come up with different sourdough discard recipes.
These Sourdough Banana Pancakes are some of my favorite things to make with my sourdough discard.
They are super easy, they use up a fair amount of discard (1/2 cup, which is about 100 grams), and I don’t feel so bad for throwing out the starter whenever it’s feeding time.
Here is what we need to make these Sourdough Banana Pancakes.
Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, melted butter, eggs, milk, and of course, banana and sourdough starter.
You may notice my sourdough was actually active and bubbly when I photographed these pictures. Which means you can use inactive starter, or the discard.
Here is a tip about the banana. The riper the banana, the more banana taste, and sweetness it will provide to your pancakes.
I made this with an almost green banana and my husband couldn’t even taste the banana. So I recommend using a very ripe banana if you are searching for a very pronounced banana taste.
The method is very simple. Mix the wet ingredients together. And mix the dry ingredients together. Then pour the wet into the dry ingredients and voila.
I’ll confess for the longest time I did the opposite and added the flour to the wet ingredients instead, and it worked fine. But the flour will be better mixed if adding the wet to dry instead.
Use a scoop or a measuring cup to pour the batter on a heated non-stick skillet.
You can use some cooking spray or a dab of melted butter in the pan to help the pancakes not stick.
Also, if you want the very round pancakes you can see on my almond butter topped pancakes, use a cookie ring to fry them. Do make sure to spray some cooking oil on the ring so that the pancake won’t stick to it.
If you want to make round pancakes, I heard a small egg frying pan will also work.
And if you notice on the picture above, if I am making thicker pancakes, I like to cover the pan with a lid, so this way it will help the middle of the pancakes cook faster without burning the outside.
Tips for making Sourdough Banana Pancakes
- The riper the banana, the stronger the banana taste in the pancakes.
- Make sure to mash the bananas really well before adding to the batter.
- Pour wet over dry ingredients.
- Keep the heat controlled so the pan doesn’t get too high and cooks the outside of the pancakes too much leaving the middle uncooked.
- These pancakes can be frozen, between layers of parchment paper. Simply re-heat them in a non-stick skillet, or toaster oven.
- They can be made with active sourdough starter or with sourdough discard.
There are many ways you can top these pancakes, as you can see I have several different ways here in this blog post.
Some of my favorite ways to top my Sourdough Banana Pancakes are:
- Almond butter and blueberries
- Caramelized bananas and Nutella drizzle
- Berries
- Chocolate drizzle and raspberries
And here are some more Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Tortillas (another perfect recipe for sourdough discard)
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Sun-dried tomato Sourdough Bread
- Homemade Sourdough Everything Bagels
And here are some more Breakfast Recipes to accompany these lovely pancakes:
This Sourdough Banana Pancakes post was initially published in 2018, and I pretty much eliminated the whole text of the blog post rambling about my sourdough baking journey, so I could add more useful information regarding the recipe itself. However, I will leave this bit here that I had written years ago:
“The true secret to baking sourdough, cooking a stunning meal, making a drop-dead gorgeous cake, is simply using your intuition. Connecting with the food. Connecting with what it means.
That’s why baking sourdough is such a good exercise towards developing your intuition as a cook and as a baker.
Because baking sourdough successfully, entails dedication, commitment, and a great deal of intuitiveness.”
Resources:
For Sourdough Baking I recommend the book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa from The Clever Carrot. It’s a stunning book with amazing tips, anybody can bake sourdough after reading this book!
Sourdough Banana Pancakes
Equipment
- Bowl
- Whisk
- Pan
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 283 grams, 10 oz
- 1 tbsp sugar 12 grams, 0.4 oz
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 tsp baking powder 16 grams, 0.56 oz
- 2 cups milk 480 ml
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter 100 grams, 3.5 oz
- 4 tbsp melted butter 56 grams, 2 oz
- 1/2 cup banana mashed (118 grams, 4.16 oz)
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt in a large bowl.
- Whisk the milk, eggs, sourdough starter, melted butter, and mashed banana together.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.
- Whisk until the mixture is smooth and combined.
- Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Spray it with cooking spray or melt a dab of butter in the skillet.
- Ladle some batter in the hot skillet.
- Cook for about 2-4 minutes, until golden. When the top of the pancakes is bubbling, it's time to flip. Cook for another 2-4 minutes on the other side.
- Remove the pancake to a plate and proceed with the remaining batter.
- Keep your eye on the heat so it’s not too high and burning the outsides of the pancakes while leaving the inside undercooked.
- Serving options: maple syrup, berries, melted chocolate, Nutella, caramelized bananas, nut butter, honey.
Storage
- This pancakes are fantastic when made fresh, but you can also keep them in the fridge overnight, and re-heat them in a frying pan or in a toaster.
- These pancakes freeze really well. Layer the pancakes between sheets of parchment paper and place them in a ziploc bag. Freeze for up to 2 months. To eat, simply pull the pancake out of the freezer and re-heat it in a frying pan at low heat, and covered, so it will defrost the inside of the pancakes, or in a toaster oven.
Notes
Nutrition
These are delicious! The pancakes were light & fluffy. I always let my batter rest for 15 minutes before making the pancakes. This recipe makes a lot, which I love, so that we can heat up the leftovers in a jiffy. I actually saved some of the batter to use the next day. The only change I made was I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon because we love it. Thanks a bunch, Camila!
These are delicious! The pancakes were light & fluffy. I always let my batter rest for 15 minutes before making the pancakes. This recipe makes a lot, which I love, so that we can heat up the leftovers in a jiffy. I actually saved some of the batter to use the next day. The only change I made was I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon because we love it. Thanks a bunch, Camila!
That’s so lovely to hear! Thank you so much!! 🙂 Sounds delicious with the cinnamon!
Great recipe! It makes a lot so I halved it. The only change I made was I added about 1/4 t of lemon juice in with the wet ingredients. Lemon juice helps activate the baking powder. I also let the batter sit a 1/2 hour before cooking. Yum!