Honey sweetened, whole grain spelt sourdough pancakes are a very nice alternative to standard pancakes and chock-full of flavour from the flour, a little sourdough tang (even more if you use a rye starter), and honey. You’ll need to set aside some time to allow the batter to rise so plan to mix it up the night before or have pancakes for an afternoon snack or dessert instead of breakfast. It can rise overnight in the refrigerator or for a few hours at room temperature.

This is a dairy- and egg-free recipe and can be made with maple syrup or sugar instead of honey if you prefer.

Ingredients

• Spelt flour: pictured is whole grain spelt. If you use sifted or light spelt flour, you’ll need a touch more (about a tablespoon or two) to make up for the difference in how much liquid is absorbed.
• Starter: this should be active sourdough starter, not discard, because the pancakes are slow-fermented. If you’re looking for a discard recipe, simply use this spelt pancakes recipe and mix in 100 grams of discard with the wet ingredients.
• Honey: the type you use will have a slight effect on the taste of the pancakes. A very dark honey will add a noticeable flavour change. Use maple syrup or sugar if you need the recipe to be fully vegan.
• Vinegar: these pancakes are leavened partly with baking soda and it needs to interact with an acid to rise properly. The starter does a bit of that work but without the added vinegar you will have a slight unpleasant baking soda taste – don’t leave it out.
• Milk: use any kind of milk you’d like. Pictured is oat milk and what I almost always use for this recipe. I think you could probably substitute buttermilk for the milk and vinegar but I haven’t tried it.

For those interested in both sourdough and ancient grains, I’ve got you covered: try these overnight sourdough waffles (with spelt), sourdough rye and spelt crackers, and spelt sourdough pizza dough. All recipes containing gluten on Occasionally Eggs are made with ancient grains like spelt, einkorn, rye, and so on.

Step by Step

The rising time depends a lot on temperature and strength of starter, so look for batter that’s about doubled in size. There will be visible bubbles throughout when it’s ready.

Step 1: mix the batter in a large bowl.

Step 2: cover and set aside to rise until about doubled in size.

Step 3: add some batter to a preheated frying pan.

Step 4: cook until golden and flip, the repeat for the remaining batter.

How to Store

Storage: keep leftover pancakes in a sealed container at room temperature for a day or two. We like to snack on them cold with toppings like peanut butter.

Freezing: transfer fully cooled pancakes to an airtight container and freeze for up to three months. Thaw at room temperature or in the toaster.

Expert Tips

• Choose a good frying pan: I haven’t tried these with a non-stick pan and always use cast iron, but no matter what you use, make sure it’s seasoned properly so that the pancakes don’t stick. All the oil in the world won’t help if your pan is sticky.
• Preheat before cooking: in almost every case, a failed first pancake is due to using a pan that’s not had enough time to heat up fully. Give it a few minutes to prevent that.
• Replace some of the milk: if you’d like sweeter pancakes, replace about 50ml (¼ cup) of the milk with a mashed banana (about 80 grams).

More Pancake Recipes

Khorasan Pancakes
Einkorn Pancakes
Oat Milk Pancakes
German Baked Apple Pancake (with buckwheat)

If you make this Spelt Sourdough Pancakes recipe or any other breakfast recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.