Spelt Sourdough Pancakes (Vegan)

Like every single other white man in his 30s the pandemic has got me making sourdough. It’s about time really. I’ve had a couple of day classes on it in the past but always fell at the first hurdle when I got home; remembering to keep the starter alive. But here I am 3 loaves deep and with a pretty healthy starter stored away. I’m not here to talk you through bread baking though, I’m actually going to suggest something to do with leftover starter; spelt sourdough pancakes.

I couldn’t not show you the sourdough I’ve been baking though could I…

So many recipes for alternative uses for sourdough starter seem to involve hundreds of grams of the stuff. If you’re not keeping a huge starter then that can make it very awkward. A large number of sourdough pancake recipes also call for numerous other ingredients, making them both more expensive, complex and time consuming. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s simply 5 simple ingredients:

  1. Sourdough starter
  2. Spelt flour
  3. Milk
  4. Sugar
  5. Baking powder

This spelt sourdough pancake recipe makes a pretty huge stack of light & fluffy pancakes. We’ve actually frozen a few to have in the future when we’re not so time rich. We topped ours with yoghurt, homemade rhubarb curds, nuts and some syrup, but these pancakes would work pretty well with whatever you wanted to top them with, even something savoury.

What do you use your leftover sourdough starter for?

Spelt Vegan Sourdough Pancakes

Deliciously light and fluffy pancakes made from discarded sourdough starter.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Proving time 8 hours
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 12 pancakes

Ingredients
  

  • 25 g Sourdough starter (I use my discarded starter that’s 100% hydration and ripe)
  • 150 g Spelt flour
  • 300 ml Oat milk (any vegan or dairy milk would work here)
  • 2 tbsp Golden caster sugar
  • 2 tsp Baking powder

Instructions
 

  • Combine the starter with the flour into a bit of a paste in a large mixing bowl.
  • Mix in the spelt flour, milk and golden caster sugar. Whisk until everything is properly incorporated.
  • Cover the mixing bowl with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for at least 4 hours. I usually leave mine overnight so I can make them for breakfast. See notes for additional suggestions. It should be slightly bubbly when it’s ready to use.
  • Heat a frying pan or skillet over a medium heat.
  • While the pan is heating up, mix the baking powder through the batter
  • Lightly oil the pan, making sure it coats the surface.
  • Add a small ladleful of batter to the hot pan, spreading it to about a 10cm circle.
  • This is quite a bubbly mixture, so the usual trick of watching for bubbles may not work, but keep an eye on the middle of the pancake and check the underside. Once it’s browned you should be able to flip it. In a hot pan I was getting around 1 minute per side.
  • Flip and cook the other side. Transfer to a pancake and keep warm while you make up the others.
  • Top with whatever you wish. Freeze any leftovers for another time.

Notes

  • I use a 100% hydration starter that’s completely ripe and bubbling.
  • I tend to bake this recipe by using starter discarded in the evening so that the batter can sit overnight and ferment. You could do it from the morning’s discard if you wanted to have them for lunch or dinner.
Keyword sourdough pancakes

Courgette Pancakes

Courgette Pancakes

If you don’t like pancakes, you’re lying. They are one of the most versatile food types. From crepes to fat american style there’s a huge amount of contrast in both texture and flavour. You can make them sweet or savoury, from the toppings down to the amount of sugar you add into your mix. This particular recipe, for Courgette Pancakes, can be eaten with sweet food (try with syrup and peanut butter like we did) or savoury (omit the sugar from the recipe and have them with something like avocado and eggs).
Read more

Travel Diaries: 36 Hours in Paris

Paris Euro 2016

It’s just past mid day on a Saturday and I find myself sat on a train emerging from a dark tunnel onto the shores of France, giddy with childlike excitement about what the next 24 hours is going to hold. I’ve already filled up on breakfast at Dishoom in Kings Cross (bacon & egg naan and more bottomless chai than any human should probably drink) and resigned myself to activating the roaming ‘deal’ (in the loosest sense) EE have offered me, which’ll allow me to use data and texts while abroad, in the knowledge that after so many reports of fan violence coming from the south of the country my family will want me to be in constant touch. We’re sat planning how we want to spend our fleeting visit to Paris, which a core focus on football. With the huge increase in security, partly due to the devastating bombings at the Stade De France last year, and now the disgusting scenes of hooliganism, we’re having to build in ‘getting through all that extra security’ time into all of our plans. Before all that though, we’ve got to check in at our AirBnB, actually see a bit of Paris and eat five million pastries.

Read more

“Christmas” Pancakes: Matcha Pancakes w/ Maple, Cinnamon Cranberries

Matcha PancakesIt’s December 1st, and we all know what that means, right? It’s CHRISTMAS. You’ll get wall to wall festive recipes from now on, with added Reuben: Now I’ve got that out of my system it’s time to talk about more serious matters, like breakfast food. Or in this case, pancakes. In fact, wait a minute, how about CHRISTMAS PANCAKES? It’s like two of the best things in life put together. Breakfast food and Christmas. What isn’t to like? I mean, matcha isn’t very Christmassy, but any excuse to crack out the green stuff (you saw my Halloween cookies, right?) and what isn’t festive about the combo of green and red? Read more

Pancake Day 2015

Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

I meant to do 2-3 different Pancake posts over the last week or so. Annoyingly I got stinkingly ill on Monday and it wrote off pretty much the whole week. Then I didn’t want to has all the pancaking making into a day and eat too many pancakes to myself in one go. So it took getting a couple of friends over for pancakes to happen. But below are two pretty awesome recipes. One sweet and one Savoury, both American style. I did a very poor job with my post last year, so to make up for it I wanted to go a bit further.


Cheese & Bacon Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
100g Mature Cheddar, Grated (extra for garnish)
2 Spring Onions, roughly chopped (one for the mixture, one for garnish)
8 Rashers Streaky Bacon, Fried until Crispy
135g/4¾oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
Maple Syrup (optional)
Sriracha (Optional)
Cheese Sauce (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the cheese and one of the spring onions.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on the plate, topping with the bacon, extra cheese and spring onion. Add any of the optional toppings (I just went with sriracha and allowed some bacon to get extra crispy to sprinkle on top).

Pancakes

Double Choc Pancakes

Pancakes

Ingredients:
135g/4¾oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
100g White Choc Chips (reserve some for garnish)
100ml Double Cream, Whipped (optional)
Maple Syrup (optional)
Ice Cream (Optional)

Instructions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sugar).
2. Whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter. Pour in to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Using a ladel dollop into a prepared hot pan. Frying until golden on one side and flipping over. Fry until both sides are golden and it’s cooked through.
4. Stack up on a plate, topping with whatever you are using (I used whipped cream).

Pancakes