Blueberry Sourdough Pancakes

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Ok. I promise this is the last sourdough recipe for awhile.  I just couldn’t help making a delicious breakfast dish though.  My barm was sitting in my fridge, feeling dejected, and I promised that I would try to use more of it while it was still nice and lively.

I reaffirmed two things when I made these sourdough pancakes.

1.  I really, really like good pancakes and sourdough pancakes are maybe as good as it gets.

2.  Blueberries make good pancakes into excellent pancakes.

I made my sourdough loaf on day 2 of my barm and it wasn’t all that sour.  I made these pancakes on day 4 and the flavor was definitely better.  They had a really nice sourness that wasn’t overpowering at all.  When you added the fruity blueberries and the sweetness of the syrup, they were really close to perfect.

Blueberry Sourdough Pancakes (adapted from Joy the Baker Recipe)
Makes about 10 large pancakes

Pancake Starter:
- 1 Cup Barm
- 1.5 Cups water
- 2.5 Cups flour (I used 1.5 Cups All-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)

Final Batter:
- 1 egg
- 2/3 Cup milk
- 1 Teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter (original recipe uses vegetable oil)

- Blueberries (Optional. Kind of.)
- Maple Syrup (These guys deserve the good stuff.)
- Whipped cream?
- Strawberries?
- Powdered Sugar?

Helpful Equipment:
- Nonstick Griddle

Making the starter. As with everything sourdough, these guys take some time.  I think in reality you probably only need to let this starter sit for a few hours before making the pancakes, nobody wants to wake up at 4AM and make it so that it’s ready when you need it.

So just do it the night before and thank me later.  Basically, combine your barm, flour, and water in a large container.  Make sure it’s at least twice as large as your starter because it will grow.

It will be wetter than bread dough, but not a batter exactly yet.  Just stir everything together.  This took me maybe 3 minutes the night before I wanted to make my pancakes.

Making the final batter. Add your final batter ingredients to a bowl and whisk them all together!

Then add the really runny stuff to your pancake starter from the night before.  Fold it together until you have a batter.  It should be the consistency of thick gravy.

Cooking the pancakes. To cook these pancakes, get out your favorite griddle and melt some butter on it.  It’s important to use butter.  Why?  Because it’s breakfast dammit.  I don’t condone any of that low-fat spray business.

When your butter is melted and your griddle is very hot, add 1/2 Cup of batter.  That makes a pretty big pancake.  Feel free to go for 1/3 of a cup for smaller or 2/3 of a cup if you like the pancake to hang off the plate.

As soon as your batter is poured on the griddle plop a few blueberries down on your pancake.  I find that 10-15 is usually a good amount.  Don’t get lazy and add your blueberries to the batter before you cook your pancake.  That will result in Blueberry Clumpage which is my #1 pancake pet peeve.

Assuming your griddle is hot, you should be able to flip the pancake after about 3-4 minutes.  When you see lots of large bubbles popping up and the edges are starting to turn up, that’s when you know it is time.

And remember:  Flip with confidence!

Move your pancakes straight to a plate and add some butter if you want.  A good drizzle of maple syrup is essential!

I’ve made some good pancakes over the last year and while the Cherry Chocolate Pancakes were maybe more inventive than these guys, I think I liked these more.  That may be because I don’t have a huge sweet tooth and these were almost savory while the chocolate ones were pretty sweet.

Now, it’s worth nothing that the total prep time for these pancakes was close to two weeks if you add up the time it took to make the starter, the barm, and the pancake batter.

Nevermind all of that! They are good!  They might not warrant making a starter on their own, but if you were on the fence about trying a sourdough starter, the idea that you can have these basically anytime after you have the barm made should be a pretty large push.