This recipe comes courtesy of the King Arthur Flour website. I used it to make sourdough pancakes. But the authors note that it works equally well for waffles. I cannot vouch for the outcome when waffling. But it did make tasty pancakes!

The recipe as written calls for entirely white flour. But, because my starter is based on whole wheat, I opted to use a mix of white and whole wheat flour. I figure the extra fibre is a nice bonus and having at least some whole wheat flour in the sponge is probably helpful for the starter as well.

The sponge rose nicely overnight and bubbled up dramatically when the baking soda was added in the morning. Despite this, the pancakes were not quite as fluffy as I was expecting. They were still very good. Just not as soft and light as I'm used to getting from some of my other buttermilk pancake recipes. But, they're easy and use a generous quantity of sourdough discard, so I really can't complain!

This recipe makes a fairly big batch of pancakes. I didn't count, but I'd say I got well in excess of two dozen (using ~1/4 c. of batter per pancake). I think, between us, we ate about a dozen for breakfast and it looked like there were still maybe a dozen and a half to two dozen going in the fridge afterward. So, this is a fairly generous recipe.

Given that I was making such a big batch, I decided to try adding some mix-ins to some of the batter. I made the first 10 or so plain and then, for the remaining batter, I added a combination of pecans, toasted sesame seeds, and white poppy seeds. (A slightly tweaked version of a suggested set of mix-ins from The Breakfast Bible. Mostly because a) I wanted a higher proportion of pecans and more mix-ins overall than the original recipe called for and b) because I couldn't find my regular poppy seeds, so I ended up using some white poppy seeds instead.)

Given that I did these pancakes two different ways, I debated whether or not to write this up as one recipe or two. I think normally I would simply do the batter write-up and then add a separate section at the bottom of the post with a variant that includes the mix-ins. But I also added toppings (peanut butter, maple syrup, and bacon) to the pancakes with the mix-ins. And, at that point, it feels like it begins to approach the point of being a new dish/recipe. So, with that in mind, I decided to make a separate post for the gussied up version and only include the plain batter here.

Sourdough Pancakes (or Waffles)

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

Sponge

• 225g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration
• 120g all-purpose flour
• 120g whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 c. buttermilk

Batter

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Combine the discard, flours, sugar, and buttermilk in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Cover and let stand at room temperature for ~12 hours.
3. The next morning, stir down the sponge and mix in the eggs, salt, and butter.
4. Sift in the baking soda and mix very well.
5. Let the batter stand while you preheat a griddle or tawa over medium heat. For waffles, preheat your waffle iron.
6. Lightly grease the tawa as needed and make your pancakes, using ~1/4 c. of batter for each and cooking until golden-brown on both sides. For waffles, pour a portion of batter into the preheated waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer directions.
7. Repeat until all batter has been used.
8. Serve with your favourite toppings.