Sourdough pancakes
We have established a family tradition that Saturday morning is pancake or waffle morning. I make the batter the day before which helps to ensure that all the ingredients are completely mixed and that the flour has soaked up all the liquid goodness. The other upside to this advance mixing is that it gives the sourdough starter a chance to make the batter all tangy and yummy, as well as leavening the batter which results in ethereally light pancakes or waffles. I also add yeast to the batter for additional lift.
Basic pancake/waffle batter
1 egg (or 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
1 cup milk (or nut water. If it doesn't come from a mammal it isn't milk;))
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
(optional - 1/2 teaspoon bread yeast and a tablespoon of sweet stuff - sugar, honey, maple syrup - to feed the yeast)
Add all ingredients, mix throughly by hand or with mixer. Allow dough to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. The best results for us come from leaving the batter out for a couple of hours at room temp until it becomes all bubbly and tangy smelling. Once the yeast and sourdough colony is activated, you should put the batter in the fridge overnight - your patience will be rewarded!
Sourdough pancakes
Make sourdough starter! This is about as easy as it gets:
http://breadbaking.about.com/od/sourdoughbreads/r/basicstarter.htm
One important point - make the sourdough starter with filtered tap water. Filtering the water through activated charcoal strips out the chlorine, which is Not A Friend of the wild yeasts and bacteria you want to colonise your starter.
The feeding routine for the starter involves pulling out 1 cup a week of the starter. Instead if discarding the mix, add it to your pancake batter before mixing which will allow you to make sourdough pancakes or waffles OF AWESOME the next day. The best thing? This gives you an excuse to make sourdough bread, pizza base, or pancakes/waffles once a week, and it's super cheap to make :)
Basic pancake/waffle batter
1 egg (or 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
1 cup milk (or nut water. If it doesn't come from a mammal it isn't milk;))
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
(optional - 1/2 teaspoon bread yeast and a tablespoon of sweet stuff - sugar, honey, maple syrup - to feed the yeast)
Add all ingredients, mix throughly by hand or with mixer. Allow dough to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. The best results for us come from leaving the batter out for a couple of hours at room temp until it becomes all bubbly and tangy smelling. Once the yeast and sourdough colony is activated, you should put the batter in the fridge overnight - your patience will be rewarded!
Sourdough pancakes
Make sourdough starter! This is about as easy as it gets:
http://breadbaking.about.com/od/sourdoughbreads/r/basicstarter.htm
One important point - make the sourdough starter with filtered tap water. Filtering the water through activated charcoal strips out the chlorine, which is Not A Friend of the wild yeasts and bacteria you want to colonise your starter.
The feeding routine for the starter involves pulling out 1 cup a week of the starter. Instead if discarding the mix, add it to your pancake batter before mixing which will allow you to make sourdough pancakes or waffles OF AWESOME the next day. The best thing? This gives you an excuse to make sourdough bread, pizza base, or pancakes/waffles once a week, and it's super cheap to make :)