Overnight Sourdough Pancakes

close up photo of white plate with sourdough pancakes

These Overnight Sourdough Pancakes are a great make ahead breakfast for the whole family! The sourdough part of the batter rests overnight, then you'll add the remaining ingredients in the morning.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 15 minutes

Resting 8 hours

Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 223kcal

Author Nora

Ingredients

To mix at night

1.5 cups sourdough starter 250g
1 cup milk of your choice 240g; see notes
5 tablespoons Greek yogurt 106g
2 tablespoons honey
1.5 cups whole wheat flour 180g; PLEASE see notes!

To add in the morning

1 teaspoon baking soda 6g
1 teaspoon baking powder 4g
1/2 teaspoon sea salt 2.5g
1 tablespoon melted butter OR oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup egg whites OR 2 large whole eggs

Instructions

The night before, combine sourdough starter, milk, yogurt, honey and flour in a large bowl. Let sit overnight, covered with a clean tea towel.
In the morning, combine baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. If using whole eggs, blend egg yolks with melted butter and vanilla. Fold everything into the pancake batter.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of egg whites into pancake batter, then gently fold in the remaining 2/3 of egg whites.
Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle until sizzling hot. Using oil spray or a tiny bit of butter, cook pancakes, using 3 tablespoons of batter per pancakes. Pancakes should only take 20-30 seconds per side. Flip carefully, they are delicate. Either keep warm on a rack in the oven or serve straight away.

Notes

Ingredient notes

Flour: Flour preferences for pancakes will probably vary wildly! We all love a good, white flour pancake, not going to lie here. And we do sometimes make these with white flour! I’ll add the exact measurements into the recipe card below if you wish to use store-bought all-purpose flour.

Personally, I mostly make these with freshly ground wheat or spelt. They get nuttier and a little “heavier” vs pancakes with all-purpose flour, but I absolutely love to incorporate freshly milled grains in our diet any way I can.

Finally, you can obviously make these with store-bought whole wheat flour, or a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. Again, I’ll add exact measurements to the recipe card at the bottom of this post!

You will always need 180g of flour, no matter what you use. In volume, it can differ greatly! Here is what you need in volume per type of flour:

Freshly ground wheat or spelt: 1 3/4 cups PLUS 3 tablespoons
Whole wheat flour: 1 1/2 cups
All-purpose flour: 1 1/3 cups PLUS 2 scant tablespoons

Sourdough starter: I use a starter fed with freshly milled grain near 100% hydration.

The recipe also works perfectly fine with an all-purpose flour starter.

If you keep a starter at 60-70% hydration, you’ll need to add more liquid to the recipe.

Eggs: To keep this Trim Healthy Mama E-friendly, I decided to use all egg whites vs whole eggs. In all honesty, I pretty much always make these with whole eggs for my family these days (none of us need to lose weight at this point and the younger kids definitely need the energy). But just so you know, they work either way.

Milk: In our household, we mostly use either unsweetened almond milk or non-homogenized whole cow’s milk. I know, very specific… But you can use any milk you prefer in this recipe. The outcome and taste will obviously differ a little depending on your milk.

Greek yogurt: I love adding this to the batter, as it makes the sourdough work even better. If you’re dairy-free, you can try adding dairy-free yogurt. But I’m sure mashed banana would work as a great substitute, too.

About the milk/yogurt:

Please bear in mind, if you live in a hot climate OR are using banana in place of the yogurt (OR just don’t feel comfortable with leaving yogurt out overnight), please add the yogurt/banana in the morning and NOT the night before. It has always worked well for me, but you do you!

The same goes for the milk. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving milk outside overnight in the soured batter, then please don’t. Just use a non-dairy milk, or rest the batter in the fridge (allow it to sit on the counter for 30 minutes before making the pancakes, though). Again, it has never been an issue for me (and I have even made a sourdough Challah with a process spanning over 3 days with milk, no issues). But if you feel uncomfortable at all, please make the pancakes in a way that leaves you without worry.

Recipe tips

Again, feel free to either leave the sourdough portion of the recipe in the fridge overnight if you’re not comfortable leaving milk/yogurt out on the counter in the batter. Alternatively, use a non-dairy milk and add the yogurt in the morning.
Don’t be afraid to mix this batter (it’s not like regular pancake batter where you mustn’t overmix). You’ll want to fully incorporate the baking powder/soda and salt, and the eggs in the morning!
Please pay attention to how you cook the pancakes. They really do best on a sizzling hot surface. You must flip them on time, else they burn quite fast.

Nutrition