Sourdough Banana Pancakes

ByCamila Hurst Posted onMarch 24, 2018March 28, 2020 Updated onMarch 28, 2020

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!

Sourdough Banana Pancakes topped with almond butter and blueberries

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.

banana sourdough pancakes with drizzling syrup

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.

Sourdough Pancakes topped with chocolate drizzle and raspberries

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.

mixing wet ingredients to make banana pancake batter

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.

Sourdough Banana Pancakes made with a cookie ring to form round pancakes

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

Banana Sourdough Pancakes topped with caramelized bananas and nutella

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

banana sourdough pancake stack with fresh fruit

And here are some more Breakfast Recipes to accompany these lovely pancakes:

Sourdough Banana Pancakes topped with chocolate drizzle and raspberries

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.”

drizzling maple syrup on top of sourdough pancakes

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!