Sourdough Dutch Baby Pancakes
Sourdough Dutch Baby Pancakes are great for a “quick-and-easy” weekday meal and the perfect way to use up excess sourdough starter so it doesn’t go to waste.
Because I’m determined to find ALL THE YUMMY WAYS to use up excess sourdough starter…here’s one more to add to the list: A Sourdough Dutch Pancake (or a puff pancake, as we like to call it).
A snap to whip up and only takes 15-25 minutes to bake. This is a super fun recipe to get the kids involved as the pancake puffs up really big in the oven. Our kids always request the oven light be turned on, and they pop a squat, right in front of the oven to watch.
As an extra bonus, these pancakes are full of protein, can be completely sugar-free, and will surely hold over your appetite well into lunchtime.
Even better, because they only use sourdough starter, with no additional flour, there’s no waiting around for a “soak time” to make them gut-friendly. They’re so easy, we even whip them up on weekday mornings!
Recipe for Excess Sourdough Starter
This sourdough Dutch Baby pancake is just one of the many ways we like to use up our excess sourdough starter. We do a LOT of baking with sourdough in our home. As a family of 6 (with four growing kiddos), we go through our fair share of food. And one way we like to save money is by baking at home with Sourdough.
Read how our family saved enough money with sourdough to buy a new car here!
Other ways we like to use up our starter are with No-Wait Sourdough Muffins. Because we’re constantly making up sourdough goodies like bagels, flat bread, tortillas and cakes, we tend to need quick-and-easy recipes to utilize all the unused starter (because I HATE tossing it in the trash!).
If you’re new to sourdough, or simply looking for more incredible, tried and true recipes, be sure to check out our eBook, Everyday Sourdough: Easy Sourdough Recipes for the Everyday Baker.
This recipe is featured in our Sourdough eBook! If you love easy and delicious sourdough recipes (including gluten-free options!), click here!
Sourdough Dutch Baby Pancake
Ingredients
- 6 Tbs. butter
- 6 farm fresh eggs
- 2 cups sourdough starter*
- 1/3 cup milk raw is best
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 Tbs. organic sugar or honey optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- In your stand mixer using the whisk attachment add eggs to bowl and beat well.
- Add sourdough starter, milk, salt, and sugar or honey (if using). Whisk on medium-low until smooth.
- Put butter into a 9-15 inch stainless steel or cast-iron skillet and place into oven for butter to melt and pan to preheat (about 5 minutes).
- Carefully remove pan from oven and swirl butter around to coat sides. Pour batter into the pan and quickly place back in the oven.
- Bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on size of pan) until pancake has puffed up and is beginning to turn golden brown on top (do not open oven during the first 15 minutes or your pancake may deflate).
- Carefully remove pan (it will be HOT) and, using a spatula, release pancake from pan and slide out onto a serving plate.
- Dust with powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon, drizzle with maple or marionberry syrup, slice some fresh fruit and add a dollop of homemade sweetened sour cream. Fancy it up however you like best!
Notes
- You can also toss all the ingredients into a blender (except the butter) and give it a quick whirl in there! That's my favorite "time saving method".
- This pancake would pair perfectly with these homemade Maple Turkey Sausages!Slice it up like a pizza and serve immediately.* If you prefer a thinner pancake, use a larger pan, for the pancake in the photo above, we used a 9 inch cast iron skillet. It was thick and fluffy, and oh so delicious!
Loved this! I sautéed some apples and cinnamon in the butter first. Poured the batter on top and baked. Loved the consistency. Thought this was really good! All my kids gobbled it up! Thanks!
You just gave us a FANTASTIC recipe to try out this weekend! Thanks for sharing Cheryl, we’re so glad you liked it!
This was great! Easy. I like that it’s not so gut heavy using sourdough!
Agreed Rande! Although we do love a traditional Dutch Baby Pancake, we love that the sourdough recipe is a bit healthier!
This Was so good! I added a shake of baking soda because my discard was pretty strong! And i added a cup of frozen blueberries which added moisture and made it messy, but as it cooled, it was perfect! Had mine with maple syrup!
YUM! Great tip on the baking soda for extra-sour starers! Thanks for sharing Alyssa!
The flavor was good but it didn’t puff up like i expected. It was a bit gummy. I used a 12 i cast iron skillet and baked 20 min.
Any ideas to get a more puffy texture? I didn’t open the oven before 15 minutes.
Hi Anne, sorry for the late reply. The sourdough Dutch baby pancake doesn’t puff up like a traditional dutch baby. It’s just a much denser batter. You can try adding a pinch of baking soda to see if that helps with more rise!
In order to have 2 cups of discarding your sourdough initial starter must be in to make large quantity or can I collect four days discard to have two cups of discard? Sorry, I’m new to this. Thanks.
Hi Feroza, I actually like to feed my starter enough to have 2 cups all at once. If you just save your discard, it could become quite sour, and storing it in the refrigerator first isn’t great for this recipe. This one really tastes best with starter that’s been fed within 8-12 hours.
My kids really liked this! I’m assuming it was supposed to have a sense spongy texture and taste almost savoury (even with the honey)? I was wondering about the amount of butter. Most rested on the top and I sopped a lot of it up with a paper towel after it came out of the oven. Is the butter bubbling on top part of what makes this dish what it is, or could it go with less? The sides came away from the pan nicely, but a portion of the bottom still stuck.
A great way to use up sourdough starter! We enjoyed it!
I’m so glad they liked it Karen! Yes, it does have a dense, spongy texture. We just made this again recently with a sourdough starter that hadn’t been fed enough and the flavor was actually TOO savory/sour for my taste, even adding maple syrup on top! The butter is supposed to float around, and I think it depends on your pan size for how much gets absorbed into the pancake and how much floats on top. It’s best to experiment with what works in your kitchen!
Should I use active starter or discarded starter?
Hi Barb! Everyone’s definition of “active” and “discarded” is different. I’m usually using my starter that’s on “maintenance feedings” (being fed once every 24 hours) that I feed in the evening. It’s not always at the peak of activity, but it also hasn’t been more than 12 hours. Hope this helps! Enjoy!
Hi there. This looks great! Can you add fruit before baking?
Hi Margaret! I’ve never tried adding fruit before baking so I’m not sure if it would affect the cook time or rise. I imagine it would work great with a little experimentation! Let us know if it works out and post a picture of the recipe on our Facebook page!
Hi, what’s the consistency of your sourdough starter? Mine’s a nearly doughy, thick rye sour. To use in most American recipes, I tend to mix it with an equal weight white flour and double the weight water and let it fermente several hours. Then it’s the “pancake batter” consistency I’ve heard mentioned elsewhere.
Hi Naomi! Our starter is at 100% hydration. The reason we love this pancake recipe is there’s no added flour, so there’s no need for the long fermentation time. But if you wanted a thinner starter, perhaps the night before you could take some of your rye starter, feed it with a combination of white/rye flours and a little extra water, then by morning you’d have an active thinner starter to use for this recipe! I’d give it a try no matter what, this pancake isn’t SUPER picky when it comes to the thickness of the batter, you just may not get quite the “puff” in your pancake if your batter is on the thicker side. If you give it a try, let us know how it worked out! We also love seeing photos of people trying our recipes on our facebook page!
Looking at your recipe. Saw another one that wanted the starter fed the night before so it could ferment for 12 hours. The recipe doesn’t say let it set in the refrigerator, just “sit for 12 hours”. Would you recommend it sit out for 12 or in the frig for 12? I’m not a member of your group so if you reply can you send it to me at FB? Patricia Palafox Sweisford
Hi Patricia, I recommend using a starter that’s been fed within 6-12 hours for this recipe (and all recipes that use sourdough “discard” as the main ingredient). This will give you a nice active starter that’s not too hungry or sour tasting. And you can leave the starter out at room temperature, between 68-80 degrees is a sourdough starter’s happy place! If you put it in the refrigerator, the activity of the starter actually goes dormant and slows way down. So if you feed it the night before then pop it into the refrigerator, it won’t actually have worked on that flour completely as a sourdough starter should.
We have an entire sourdough book filled with helpful tips if that interests you! https://everydayfull.com/everyday-sourdough