Alaskan Sourdough Pancakes

Alaskan Sourdough Pancakes are made with an overnight sourdough starter. The starter is ready to use in the pancake batter the next morning for breakfast or brunch.  The key to making things really simple is to have the batter the proper consistency the night before you plan to use it so you don’t have to add flour or liquid the next morning.

 

These pancakes are delightfully tender and they brown beautifully. They also have a slightly tangy flavor and go really well topped with maple syrup and strawberries, blueberries or other fruit.

Be sure to keep some starter for next time:

The first time you make the Alaskan sourdough starter, you will use instant or active dry yeast. To have some starter leftover for the next batch, reserve 1/2 to 1 cup of the starter and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. When you make the starter again, you’ll use the reserved starter instead of yeast. Then, you’ll reserve some from that batch and so on and so forth.

Using a regular sourdough starter:

If you want to use a sourdough starter you have on hand already rather than making the Alaskan sourdough starter, just keep in mind, it needs to be a stiff starter (meaning you feed it with more flour than water).

This recipes calls for 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour which makes 1 3/4 cups of starter (according to my measuring cups) before it is doubled in volume.  So you could take 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups of your stiff starter, then add in the other ingredients (i.e. sugar, salt) and let it double in volume. Once it doubles in volume, make the pancakes according to the directions below. You can play around with the amount of starter depending on how many pancakes you want to make and how thick you make them.

 

Alaskan Sourdough Starter

Adapted from: Sourdough Breads and Coffee Cakes by Ada Lou Roberts

Makes: Approximately twelve 4-inch pancakes

Edited 2/22/2015: updated photos and changed the ingredient list to include less salt and yeast.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant (or active dry) yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Prepare this the day before you want to use it.

If you use active dry yeast, activate it in the warm water before mixing the rest of the ingredients.

In a medium bowl, add the salt, sugar, yeast and flour, and beat well with a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon.

You should have a batter which will pour but is not too thin. Keep in a warm place, tightly covered in bowl large enough to allow for it to double in volume.  My starter doubled in volume after fermenting all night.

 

 

Alaskan Sourdough Pancakes

Ingredients:

• Alaskan Sourdough Starter (full recipe less 1/2 to 1 cup) *
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon water **

* According to the original recipe (from the 1960s), you’re supposed to save 1 cup of this starter and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.  Then you use the remaining starter batter to make the Alaskan Sourdough Pancakes.  I incorporated all of the sourdough in the pancakes.

** The amount of soda may be increased slightly if for any reason the batter smells or tastes too sour.

 

Directions:

To the starter batter add the butter, eggs, baking soda and water.  Beat gently until fully incorporated.

Bake the pancakes on a hot griddle until they are golden brown.

 

Tips for using the reserved starter:

The next time you want to make more pancakes, make up the starter as you did the first time except use the reserved starter instead of the dry yeast. However, be sure to pour off the 1/2 to 1 cup of starter each time before adding the butter, egg and soda dissolved in water and never add any leftover pancake batter to the starter (unless you don’t plan to keep it for next time).

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy