It’s back to school time! For mums (and dads) that means back to packing lunch boxes, morning rush and all that goes with it. When it comes to breakfast, we need something that kids love to eat, quick to prepare, possibly warm (especially on cold mornings) and versatile: pancakes!
When I announce Pancakes for breakfast! our kids ask immediately: thick or thin? Thin pancakes are actually crepes and thick are pancakes. Considered as a French specialty, crepes are widespread and very common throughout continental Europe: if you order pancakes, chances are you’ll get crepes.
Our son likes “thin” pancakes (read crepes) and our daughter “thick” ones, pancakes, that is. So when I make the latter, I thin out the last batch of the batter to runny consistency and make a few crepe-like pancakes. But still have to alternate between the two varieties.
My favourite pancake recipe is with buttermilk. Buttermilk pancakes are thick and spongy with less fat needed to achieve the softness. There is always buttermilk in our fridge as I make my own buttermilk. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute it with regular milk (1 cup) mixed with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, apple cider or vinegar and let it stand 5-10 minutes.
The buttermilk pancake recipe:
- 2 cups self raising flour (if using plain flour add 1 teaspoon bicarb soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoon melted butter or oil
- 2 cups buttermilk
Note: To memorize this recipe easily, just think “2“: 2 C SR flour, 2 eggs, 2 C buttermilk !
- Mix all dry ingredients together.
- Beat the eggs and add melted butter or oil.
- Add one cup of buttermilk to the eggs, mix well.
- Pour buttermilk and eggs mixture into dry ingredients and mix all quickly into a thick batter with a whisk. By adding half the required liquid first the batter will be smooth and without clumps.
- Now add the second cup of buttermilk and incorporate gently. Add more buttermilk if the batter is too thick.
- At this stage you can add some corn, herbs, grated cheese or carrot for savoury or chopped fruit or berries for the sweet version.
- Pour the batter into medium hot oiled pan or griddle – about ¼ of cup or more for larger pancakes. Cook as many at the time as you can fit in your pan without sticking together.
- Turn over when bubbles appear on the top and cook the other side until golden.
- Serve warm.
This is a simple buttermilk pancake recipe without sugar. We love it with avocado or other savoury spreads as well as jam or honey, hence the jam will lend the sweetness. To make sweet pancake batter just add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar to the flour when mixing dry ingredients.
Easy Buttermilk Pancake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups self raising flour if using plain flour add 1 teaspoon bicarb soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoon melted butter or oil
- 2 cups buttermilk
Instructions
- Mix all dry ingredients together.
- Beat the eggs and add melted butter or oil.
- Add one cup of buttermilk to the eggs, mix well.
- Pour buttermilk and eggs mixture into dry ingredients and mix all quickly into a thick batter with a whisk. By adding half the required liquid first the batter will be smooth and without clumps.
- Now add the second cup of buttermilk and incorporate gently. Add more buttermilk if the batter is too thick.
- At this stage you can add some corn, herbs, grated cheese or carrot for savoury or chopped fruit or berries for the sweet version.
- Pour the batter into medium hot oiled pan or griddle – about ¼ of cup or more for larger pancakes. Cook as many at the time as you can fit in your pan without sticking together.
- Turn over when bubbles appear on the top and cook the other side until golden.
- Serve warm.
I had been using a very basic recipe of my mothers for years, but I wanted something different for my daughter’s birthday breakfast. The buttermilk worked a treat they tasted great. I will be using this from now on.
Thank you for your feedback Colleen!
This was a great recipe, I’d never used buttermilk before and I made this into a really yummy savory brunch treat. The pancakes were thick and fluffy. Thanks.
Thanks Karen,
Next post is going to be Buttermilk Scones.
Delicious! I didn’t oil my pan before frying the pancakes as they had oil in them anyway and they turned out fine and didn’t stick to the pan. I used olive oil to make them healthy. I also didn’t add sugar even though we had them as sweet pancakes so they were nice and healthy and nobody complained about the missing sugar. Great recipe!
Bon appétit Jane!
I love cooking and think this is a great no fail recipe…fluffy easy pancakes!
With so many pancake recipes on the internet.I decided to use yours because it seemed simple but unfortunately my batter was a little dry ao i added 1/2 a cup of extra butter milk and 2 table spoons of sugar for that hint of sweetness. Not a bad recipe but needs sugar and my secret 1 tblspoon of greek yoghurt.Thanks
How many approximately does this recipe make?
Hi Lynette,
It depends on how big and how thick you make each pancake. I never actually counted them as my kids eat them as I bake.
beautiful recipe! I cooked them for my younger brother and he says it was just like the ones from the shops. Nice and easy and would say the butter milk makes the difference. thanks.
Thanks villarn
Because your pancakes are homemade and cooked with love, they are way better than the shop bought ones!
Sounds great! Can I freeze the extras? Will that affect the fluffiness please? My first buttermilk pancakes!
You can freeze extras Yen, however, I’m not sure how they taste after defrosting or wether freezing affects the fluffiness. If I have a few extra (that rarely happens), they are eaten on the next day. Cheers.
Made this for breakfast this morning, shared with my mom and dad and all three of us agreed = best pancakes ever!! Can’t wait to use this to try with some fresh prune plums, or apples, or peaches for a quick and easy upsidedown “pan”cake. Thanks so much 🙂
You’re welcome Robb! Thanks for your feedback. Upside down fruit “pan” cake – sounds delicious!
Fantastic recipe! Pancakes came out nice and fluffy! They’re going into my daughter’s lunchbox for kinder tomorrow! Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for your feedback Katie! Buttermilk pancakes are often in my kids lunchboxes, too. Sometimes I add fresh or frozen berries, chopped greens or grated sweet potatoes. Enjoy!
These are beautiful, fluffy pancakes. What a great, simple recipe, and one that is now my ‘go to’ pancake batter.
Thank you for your feedback Lauren! Happy baking.
Very nice!
When I was a kid in the 80s I can’t recall anyone using the word crepe. We made pancakes according to an old recipe in the Australian classic Golden Wattle cooking book and they very definitely used plain flour, were thin and took up most of pan and were best eaten with butter and sugar and lemon. Apparently we’ve since adopted American definitions and now pancakes are no longer as flat as a pancake but rather as flat as a fluffy pikelet. It’s probably a losing battle but I’ll be buggered if I’m going to call those small fat things pancakes even if they are delicious.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your insight, it’s interesting how things are changing. Growing up in Europe, the only pancakes I knew about were the thin ones with plain flour, too. However, to avoid confusion, I used therm crepe and pancakes in the recipe. As you, I still call crepes – pancakes.
Happy baking!
I really liked this recipe! Very easy to make and the texture, flavour and fluffiness was just right.
I prefer to add less salt to pancakes, so I only added 1/8 of a teaspoon. I also added 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, as suggested.
Thank you for your feedback Emma! It’s easy to adjust the recipe to your taste as you did. Enjoy.