Sourdough Waffles and Pancakes

Do you cover the equal parts flour/Milk to one cup starter recipe? and also what is the baking soda for?

Yes, I covered the bowl with a towel at the time but if I were to follow that same recipe now, I would cover with plastic wrap as is instructed in the Nancy Silverton recipe. By the way, you may have to experiment with the "equal parts" thing as you may find a thinner batter more to your liking.

The baking soda is to help with the rise. Most waffle/pancake recipes call for eggs. The way I used to make them didn't involve eggs which is why this recipe is "on the heavy side" as I mention. The soda helps lighten them up a little. The above Nancy Silverton recipe produces light waffles that actually cook all the way through.

In a taste test, I think the vast majority of people would choose Nancy's recipe over the way I used to make them. My recipe was just a tad (a lot) on the primitive side.

Eric

Hi Eric,
First, let me say that I love this website. I found more useful information here than anywhere else.
Next… I started making sourdough pancakes because I couldn't bear to throw the starter away. I found this recipe somewhere and tweaked it a bit, but it is the best pancakes ever. I hope it is ok to share it here.
Jacki

Rich Sourdough Pancakes

3 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups Sourdough Starter mix
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter melted
Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk and sourdough starter mix. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar; add to the egg mixture, mixing well. Stir in melted butter. Lightly grease a hot griddle. Drop the batter by 1/4 cup onto the griddle and cook until light brown, turning once.

Hi Jacki,

Thanks for the nice feedback (and your order ). Your recipe is very appreciated. It looks great! I've added a note above so people will more easily find it.

Eric

I need a sourdough recipie that does not use any baking powder or soda and preferably no eggs.. Merci, khaled.

Would you have a recipe, using this starter, for sourdough biscuits? My husband loves biscuits but I don't want to try just any recipe and I'm happy with your bread recipes on this site.
Thank you.

Hi Jessica,

Not yet, but I would recommend heading over to http://www.thefreshloaf.com and checking (or asking) there. They have zillions of recipes and if one for sourdough biscuits isn't already posted, I'll bet if you ask in the forum someone will have something for you.

Maybe a better option is join the Yahoo Sourdough users group (Google "yahoo groups"). Great bunch of people and passionate and knowledgeable about sourdough baking. They would definitely have something good.

I hope you find something.

I just acquired a sourdough starter from my sister who has had it in her husband's family for over 60 years. My sister keeps it in the refrigerator and doesn't remember the last time she touched it but her mother-in-law gave her instructions to use it, she just hasn't used it and hasn't taken advantage of this prescious commodity. The starter had liquid on the top and a bit of mold and was crusty. I took a tablespoon and brought it home to try to revive a bit of it. I didn't pour off the liquid like your video says, but instead stirred it in. Would you recommend that this starter is fit to use? I also started another starter using your pineapple juice method. I want to fix sourdough waffles for my inlaws in a week and am hoping one of them works.
Lisa Black

Hi Lisa,

I would certainly try to revive your sister's starter. Just take that tablespoon and mix in a tablespoon of flour and a couple teaspoons of water and leave it on the counter. Hopefully it will start to bubble and come to life within a few hours. Then feed it again by doubling its volume. (Add 2 T four and about 1 1/2 T water). Double twice a day until you have the quantity you need then you can refrigerate it and just feed it every few days or so to keep it in optimal health.

Even the deadest looking starter can be revived sometimes. Let us know how it goes.

The pineapple juice technique is good but may take longer to get up to speed than working with the existing stuff. Plus it may not work at all the first time. Sometimes you have to try a couple times before it takes.

Good luck.

I have a "regular" starter going from a dried starter a friend in the Yukon gave me. It's bubbling and so far we've had wonderful biscuits, made a batch of sourdough fruitcake, and added some to the NKB we made last week.

Yesterday I took some of the starter and fed it with KA whole wheat flour and a bit of sugar & water. This morning I fed it again, with some wonderful organic cane sugar, white whole wheat flour (KA), and water - hoping to do some whole grain breads.

Question is: Has anyone played with soaked cracked wheat in a sourdough NKB? There is a commercial sourdough cracked wheat bread (not too heavy on the cracked wheat) that my husband loves and I'd like to recreate it at home.

Love the site, and thanks for all the help!

Hi there, I made Jacki's sourdough pancakes a couple of weeks ago, but found they were a little tough for my family's liking. This morning, I tried them again, but thought that perhaps Canadian AP flour had too much gluten, so I used cake and pastry instead. They were wonderful, very tender and delicate and great flavour. Thank you Jacki for a great recipe.

Thanks a lot, Jon. This looks great. I added a mention of this above so people can find it easily enough.

After you mix up the initial ingredients and set aside, does it matter how long you set it aside for?

Unlike other recipes where you mix milk & flour, this recipe uses 100% starter for the base of the batter. There is no need for it to be set aside to rest after mixing in the egg/sugar/salt/oil. The baking soda causes the leavening.

I was trying to emphasize that you have 2 bowls, a bowl of batter and a bowl that you put a small amount of batter into and then fold the soda into it before pouring it onto the hot iron or griddle.

If you add the baking soda to the entire batter all at once then the entire batch will rise and become airy as it is folded in. Then as you bake waffles, a rather time consuming task, the batter will deflate, settle, and become flat before you finish using it. So you only want to fold soda into what you are going to immediately cook. Thus the main batter is kept free (set aside) of baking soda so it doesn't go flat over the time it takes to cook each waffle.

This is especially useful if you are baking for many people over an extended period of time. In my previous life as a Sea Captain (I recently retired) I would cook pancakes for the crew on Sundays if we were at sea (I like to say my sourdough is world-famous since it's been all over the pacific rim). Breakfast lasts 1 hour so crew would come trickling into the galley over that period of time
as some got ready for work and others got off work. That is how I found out that using the soda on only the amount of batter I was immediately cooking would keep the pancakes light. Since most folks are used to heavy flour pancakes they were pleasantly surprised at the lightness. They resemble crepe's. I never cooked waffles on the ship because it took too long. I use the same receipt for waffles & pancakes. I do the waffles at home. The sourdough is from potato water that I
first started in 1975 (and kept alive since) after a trip to Alaska where I discovered sourdough pancakes in a Ketchikan diner.

Jon

I just read Jacki Kennedy's sourdough pancake recipe posted May 7, 2007.
I've been making sd pancakes for a few weeks and love being able to use up my extra starter (as well as the pancakes!)

In all the recipes I've used and read you mix everything together except the eggs and soda/baking powder then leave it at room temp over night. Eggs etc. go in just before using. Jacki's recipe didn't mention any of that. Does she put it all together in the morning and use it right away?

Betty

Try this San Francisco Exploratorium [science museum]website.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-sourdough.html

Note the grape based starter link at the bottom of the page.

Eric,

Do you have a process for converting a regular SD knead type recipe to NKSD? I tried converting my Olive rosemary recipe to NK, but the dough came out too wet and I didn't get the oven spring I usually get by kneading. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Chuck

Hey Chuck.

My approach to converting something to a no knead sourdough recipe just starts with the basic no knead recipe and then adding whatever ingredients I want to add.

So if you go over to http://www.breadtopia.com/no-knead-recipe-variations, you'll see a few no knead variations that are basically the standard no knead recipe but all the ingredient lists show 1/4 cup sourdough starter in place of the usual 1/4 tsp of instant yeast.

Where's the RICE?

I've been doing a little recipe searching online for sourdough pancakes. I've noticed many recipes require using a flour based starter. My sourdough starter is the one where you add potato flakes. Does the potato flake starter work the same for these flour based starter recipes? If not, does anyone have a good pancake recipe using the potato flake sourdough starter?

Hi Sue,

Potato flake starter should work just the same. May even taste better! Let us know how it turns out.