1. Prep the overnight mixture.

Mix together:

• 1/2 cup unfed sourdough starter
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk 
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tbsp honey

Allow the mixture to sit for at least 1 hour, ideally 8+ hours. This will give the sourdough time to get feisty and the oats time to plump up from the buttermilk. 

As mentioned above, you can absolutely make the entire batter (not just the overnight mixture) the night before! You’ll have slightly less puffy pancakes, but I do this all the time. I even let it sit longer because I’ll typically only cook half of the batter on a given morning and then save the remainder for the next day. It works just fine.

2. Melt the butter.

Melt the butter (1/3 cup) and allow to cool a bit.

3. Finish preparing the batter.

To the overnight mixture, add:

• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup melted butter, slightly cooled (so it doesn’t cook your egg).

If you’re adding fruit (totally optional!), fold in in the 1 1/2 cup of raspberries, strawberries, or bananas.

4. Make some pancakes.

Preheat a pan for at least a minute (2-3 minutes if you’re using a cast iron) over medium heat. You want the pan to be quite hot when you start the pancakes.

Right before you’re about to cook, add some butter to the pan. My favorite way of doing this is to take a stick of butter, peel the paper off one side, and literally smear the butter stick all over the bottom of the pan. That way, you get complete coverage. I always save a stick of butter in our fridge for just this purpose. It works great for eggs too, by the way.

The butter should immediately foam up – then you know the pan is hot enough. If any areas are not foamy, this is a good indication that the pan is not evenly heated – consider readjusting the pan on the stove and waiting a bit longer. 

Add a spoonful of batter to the pan. I usually prefer these pancakes on the thinner side, so don’t use a massive scoop. The butter should bubble around the batter – not a ton, but a little. If not, your pan is not hot enough OR you don’t have enough butter in the pan.

Pancakes are ready to flip when little bubbles come to the top of the pancake all over (not just around the edges). Flip, and remember that pancakes always brown faster on the second side. Err on the side of overcooking here, because the oats will prevent the batter from drying out too much, but the raspberries can slow down the cooking (particularly if you added frozen raspberries).

5. Enjoy your yummy pancakes!