Julie Clark
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Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
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Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes made with discard! Easy pancakes that bake up fluffy and with amazing pumpkin spice flavor.
Our family has always been head over heels for our sourdough pancakes. But this past year people all over the world have fallen in love with them as well! With many of you making sourdough starter (have you tried our sourdough cinnamon rolls?!), ya’ll have wondered what to do with all that discard.
You loved our sourdough discard pumpkin bread, so we tweaked our sourdough pancakes to make a pumpkin version. You’ll love these soft sourdough pumpkin pancakes with a drizzle of maple syrup and melted butter.
Why you’ll love sourdough pumpkin pancakes:
- soft fluffy pancakes
- sourdough and pumpkin spice flavor combination
- easy to make with sourdough discard
- perfect for fall weekends or Thanksgiving morning
What is sourdough discard?
You can read our complete sourdough guide, but once you start making sourdough, you either have to bake with it or discard part of the start or it will keep growing. In order to not be wasteful, you can make recipes with the sourdough discard.
Sourdough discard recipes use other leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda or yeast) to get a rise in the baked good. Try our sourdough biscuits, sourdough bread, sourdough pie crust and top rated sourdough pizza crust.
A Few Notes Before You Begin
- Use pure pumpkin puree. NOT canned pumpkin pie filling.
- Notice that this recipe does not use eggs. Pumpkin is often used in place of eggs in recipes so no extra eggs are needed.
- The sourdough starter does NOT have to be active. If it is a little active, it will be fine to use, but it can be sourdough discard. Notice in the recipe I gave the weight of the starter I used in grams so you can get an accurate measurement, whether there are bubbles in the starter or not.
- Do not overmix the pancakes or they will be tough. It is ok if there are lumps in the batter.
- Pancake griddles are amazing if you make pancakes often. Use butter to grease the griddle if you like a little crispy edge. Use cooking spray if you want lower fat. Flat cast iron griddles are perfect for pancakes, too.
How to Make Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the sourdough starter, milk, pumpkin puree, oil and vanilla. Stir until the mixture is even.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, salt and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not overmix! It is ok if there are a few small lumps. They’ll cook out.
- Spray a pancake griddle (or cast iron skillet) with cooking spray or grease well with butter. Heat to about 300-350ºF.
- Use a ½ cup measuring cup to scoop and pour pancake batter on the hot pan. Cook until the pancake starts bubbling on top, then flip the pancake to the second side. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the pancake is cooked through and golden brown.
Add more spices if you’d like!
We used two nice size tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice AND two teaspoons of ground cinnamon. We like the spice. Ginger, cloves and nutmeg are two other options for adding flavor.
Toppings for Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
- Cinnamon Butter
- Honey Butter Syrup
- Powdered Sugar Glaze
- Homemade Cinnamon Chips: These are delicious inside the pancakes!
Try one of our other popular pancake recipes!
Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes made with discard! Easy pancakes that bake up fluffy and with amazing pumpkin spice flavor.
Servings 16
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter 250 grams
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 1 cup pumpkin puree 245 grams
- 2 tablespoons canola oil 26 grams, or coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 270 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 10 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda 6 grams
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 26 grams
- 1 teaspoon salt 6 grams
- 2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice 11 grams
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon 6 grams
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the sourdough starter, milk, pumpkin puree, oil and vanilla. Stir until the mixture is even. 1 cup sourdough starter, 2 cups 2% milk, 1 cup pumpkin puree, 2 tablespoons canola oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, salt and spices. 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not overmix! It is ok if there are a few small lumps. They’ll cook out.
- Spray a pancake griddle (or cast iron griddle) with cooking spray or grease well with butter. Heat to about 300-350ºF.
- Use a ½ cup measuring cup to scoop and pour pancake batter on the hot pan. Cook until the pancake starts bubbling on top, then flip the pancake to the second side. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the pancake is cooked through and golden brown.
- Serve warm with butter and syrup.
Notes
- Made 16 5” pancakes.
- Use ½ cup batter per pancake.
- Add chocolate chips if you love pumpkin and chocolate together.
- Store leftover pancakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave.
Nutrition
Calories: 121kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 229mg | Potassium: 144mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 2432IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg
These were yummy. I doubled and it made a ton. I did alter the spices a bit and added some eggs as other reviews suggested. Thank you!
I will be making this recipe again because I used oat flour and even though they were yummy they certainly were not fluffy and didn’t rise as much, will post a second review as soon as I do!
This recipe makes INCREDIBLE waffles!! 5 minutes in the waffle maker and you’ve got the perfect fall waffle. Love to make this recipe with lots of chocolate chips as pancakes on the cast iron as well… been a go to every week in our house! Even when I accidentally burnt them, the taste can’t be beat!
Don’t waste your time and ingredients! They’re still doughy in the middle, even if you burn the outsides. So disappointed
I couldn’t understand why this recipe didn’t have eggs. I added some and I will be baking it in the morning. I make a lot of pumpkin baked goods and they all use eggs. I have high hopes and I gave it a good rating anyway.
These are absolutely divine!! Made them for dinner because here in AZ it was 94 degrees today and I am dreaming of fall. 🙂 After seeing others’ comments about the quantity of spices (being a lot) I googled and saw that 2 Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice should weigh 16.6 grams, far more than the gram equivalent written. Being cautious, I decided to do 6 grams cinnamon and 7 grams pumpkin pie spice, and honestly they are amazing! I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and will be making this every fall for sure. One more note: I followed… Read more »
I’m making these in the morning, got a head start by mixing my dry ingredients. After, I read the comments… it looks like you have a typo… you call for TABLEspoons of pumkin pie spice, but list it as 11g. I went with the volume measure, and i hope my kids are not overwhelmed by the spices. Otherwise, these sound great, and i hope it works out.
Can you freeze these?
This is an amazing recipe! I love using my starter for things other than bread and this is a favorite with my husband. Thank you so much!
Our family loves these! We always add chocolate chips to the top with maple syrup. My boys don’t usually like sourdough food, but they love these yummy pancakes where you can’t taste the sourdough.
Oh lort. This recipe was sooo close to 5 stars! There was so much (cinnamon & pumpkin pie) Spice in this that I was able to fold space and time. Next time (there will be a next time), I will cut back the spices and maybe try an overnight ferment so I do not feel like I am sucking on whole spices. Perhaps some brown sugar in addition to the granulated sugar to sweeten it further. Everything else was on point. The pancakes would have had a velvety mouthfeel if not for the grittiness of the spices and the pancakes… Read more »
I just whipped up a batch this morning, and WOW great texture. Nice balance between thickness and fluffy- not too dense or tough. They weren’t very sweet, I used a little all spice because I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice. Next time I will add brown sugar instead of granulated and increase the amount if I want it sweeter. This recipe is great as a muffin or bread.
These pumpkin pancakes were absolutely delicious!! I replaced a little bit of the milk with buttermilk since I had it and used leftover roasted butternut squash. Also used a little less cinnamon. These will be a staple in our house! Thank you!
Sweet potato was a success! In these pancakes since I didn’t have pumpkin!
These are so delicious. I started them the night before by mixing the water, sourdough and flour together, I also threw in 3 tablespoons of buttermilk powder( I have a lot to use up 😬)
I also use your plain sourdough pancake recipe a lot and use the same method by starting the night before