I am starting a new job this week and in case you couldn’t tell, I had a little bit of time at hand last week and cooked up a couple of things. One of them being Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles as a by-product of having started my own Sourdough starter. If you want to bake your own Sourdough bread from scratch, you will need a “starter” and it will take a good 2 weeks before you have a “stable” and “fully functioning” Sourdough starter. While you are growing and feeding your starter you also remove 1/2 of the concoction every day and feed it with new flour and liquid. This “removal byproduct mixture” is actually a really good base for pancakes and waffles.

Now you don’t have to start your own sourdough starter to make these pancakes, you can easily replace the sourdough starter with a package of yeast but its fun to actually use up all my “food” and not having to throw this “by-product” away.

The waffles get incredibly crispy and the pancakes get really fluffy. So it might be worth a try to make your own sourdough starter so that you can make sourdough waffles and pancakes. But you can also buy sourdough starter e.g. at Amazon if you don’t want to risk if your starter will kick into gear or not. Or you just ask your baker if they will sell you some of their sourdough starter. Mine so far is doing fine but from what I understand are there a lot of things that can go wrong. Mainly not having the right flour with sufficient yeast (organic flour would be the best as it doesn’t go through bleaching processes and/or is treated by pesticides removing the “good” yeast. )

Here a link to the sourdough starter recipe I followed: Sourdough Starter:

And here the recipe for the sourdough pancakes and waffles. They both use the same dough, so you decide what you want to make. I gave both a try. The left over waffles can be frozen and then just pop them into the toaster or toaster oven when you are hungry for a waffle.

Ingredients:

Overnight sponge:

• 1 cup sourdough starter (unfed)
•  2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups buttermilk

 Waffle/Pancake Batter:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or butter
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. To make the overnight sponge, stir down your refrigerated starter, and remove 1 cup. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 1 cup starter, flour, sugar, and buttermilk. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight.
2. In the morning: In a small bowl or mixing cup, beat together the eggs, and oil or butter. Add to the overnight sponge. Add the salt and baking soda, stirring to combine. The batter will bubble.
3. Pour batter onto your preheated, greased waffle iron, and bake according to the manufacturer’s instructions – or make pancakes and pour a small ladle full of pancake batter in a greased medium heated pan and bake fro 1,5 minutes per side.
4. Serve waffles/pancakes immediately, to ensure crispness. Or hold in a warm oven till ready to serve. Don’t stack them on top of each other, then they lose their crispness.

Guten Appetit!