Overnight Pancakes

Who doesn’t like pancakes?

Who is awake enough in the morning to make homemade pancake batter and then stand over a stove, flipping pancakes?

I can’t help you with the standing-over-the-stove part of pancakes. I feel your pain. But I do have a solution that allows you to avoid boxed pancake mixes and treat your family to wholesome homemade pancakes. In fact, just like my overnight waffle recipe, my overnight pancake recipe wins extra points with my family on taste alone. Better yet, you mix up the batter the night before while you are still coherent. Then, all you have to do in the morning is stand over the stove.

Win-win.

The overnight part is why I refer to my pancakes and waffles as sourdough.

What is sourdough?

Sourdough bread is made from what we call a sourdough starter. The starter batter-a combination of yeast, liquid, flour, and maybe some sugar—is combined hours before. Unlike regular bread dough that you shape after it rises, you allow the sourdough starter to rise and fall over several hours or days. This is what gives sourdough that slightly sour taste.

With traditional sourdough bread, you would then remove part of the starter and add more flour and liquid to keep the starter going. You would then combine the rest of the starter with other ingredients to make a dough. The starter, which contains yeast, replaces the need for any leavening.

You won’t remove any part of the batter for my waffles and pancakes. But, like a sourdough starter, you allow the batter to set overnight, allow the yeast to grow and work within the flour-liquid mixture.

What’s different about these pancakes?

Most recipe for for pancakes use baking soda or baking powder and you mix up the batter right before cooking. This recipe uses yeast. And, unlike most recipes for pancakes, you’ll mix most of the ingredients the night before. You’ll cover the batter with a towel, put it in a safe, draft free place and then let it set overnight. In the morning, you can tell from the dough line that it indeed has risen up, then fallen back. You’ll add eggs and a pinch of soda to offset the sour taste, and then cook like regular pancakes.

But here’s the big surprise. When you serve the pancakes, your family will never know they are sourdough. These pancakes, just like my waffle recipe, are light and fluffy. Restaurant and pancakes from a box will forever more will taste heavy and dense. Once I discovered this recipe, I never wanted to use another method again. And my family didn’t want me to either. They are that good.

Thanks to The Doubleday Cookbook, Volume 2, for the idea.  (You can find used copies at Abebooks.) A yeast-based pancake was their idea. Letting the dough set overnight and adding the eggs right before cooking was mine.

How is this different from my recipe for Overnight Waffles? Waffles have a slightly different proportion of ingredients. It’s the same easy overnight method, however. You can find my overnight waffle recipe here.

For more about sourdough and overnight pancakes and waffles, see my video on my “The Bakers Dozen” playlist on Youtube.)