Cooking Cheap

I don’t make pancakes. but the Sourdough story wouldn’t be incomplete without a few recipes. I can’t speak for the first recipe. I haven’t made it and I haven’t eaten it. Also, it’s different from the recipe I have eaten.

Make a sponge with
1 cup of starter
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup of warm water

In theory this gets you 2 1/2 cups of sponge, 1 cup to replenish the starter and 1.5 cups for the recipe. I find I have less than a cup to replenish the starter, but that’s me.

Mix ingredients in a 2 quart or larger bowl. For pancakes, you’ll probably want to mix this fairly smooth and lump free. Cover with plastic wrap and proof in a 85F place for 8 to 12 hours. It’s ready when foamy with large bubbles. If it’s filled with tiny bubbles, it’s past ready. No bubbles is a dead starter and it’s a Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast for you. I am desperately trying not to make a pun about Dennyboy’s Scam.

Next morning
1 1/2 cups of the sponge
1/2 cup white flour
1 egg
1 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl melted butter
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbl milk

1. Get the milk up to room temperature (along with every but the melted butter)
2. Mix sponge with flour. Beat the egg and mix it into the batter. Mix in sugar
3. Add the melted butter and salt. Mix.
4. Mix in the milk
5 Spoon desired amount of batter on an preheated oiled 400F griddle and cook like any pancake.

There’s another variation that includes baking powder:

“I don’t sweat the amount of starter that goes in so much, just hope to remove as much as I put in which is always hard to gauge since the stuff that goes in the night before is always flat for me (straight out of the refrigerator) and the morning after it’s so bubbly.  But anyway, here’s the recipe I use:”

For two people, the night before I mix 1 1/4 cups flour (pastry flour is what I use, but all-purpose is OK) and 1 cup warm water and whatever amount of starter–1/2 cup or 1 cup. Cover, etc.

The next day, remove and return the same amount of starter to starter crock. Mix up one egg, add to bowl; add 2 or 3 tbl oil to bowl–mix it all up.  In a little cup mix up 1 tbl sugar, 1/2 teas salt and 1/2 teas baking soda (not powder). Sprinkle this over the bowl and stir in until you don’t feel sugar on the bottom of the bowl  It will sort of puff up in the bowl. Now’s the time to decide if you need to add some milk, cream, or whipping cream to make the batter thinner–might need as much as a 1/4 cup.

Easy to double recipe for more folks or hunger.

Leftover pancakes are not worth keeping in the freezer or fridge for some reason–I give them to the squirrels.

If you want to make waffles, the instructions (from the old county agent I got the sourdough and recipe from) were to use pure whipping cream instead of milk  (You just want a LOT of fat in the batter so it releases from the iron easily.)