2021-03-07 You'll Wholly Flip For These Pancakes!
Sadly, my doctors are encouraging me to cut back on carbs, especially on white ones. So, I am taking a deeper dive into home ground whole wheat. First out the gate, I revisited our sourdough discard pancakes. I replaced the all-purpose flour with freshly milled whole wheat flour using "Colorado Rustic Red Wheat Kernels" from "Grains from the Plains". Nice folks, and a nice mild, sweet wheat. I also cut out the sugar.
In a word, the pancakes GREAT! We REALLY liked them! We froze the extras and had them the next day and they were still great. Highly recommended!
I've also made a Biga Pan Francese based on Ciril Hitz's recipe, which he shared on YouTube. Again, I converted this to use freshly milled whole wheat and they also turned out very well, but I'm not quite ready to share that recipe. His recipe, or formula, is around the 6 minute mark of the video.
So, let's talk about the pancakes. We used a VERY mature discarded whole wheat sourdough starter. This gave the pancakes a sour flavor that you might not like, though we did. With a bit of syrup, the sourness receded into the background.
Volumetric Measure (Cups) | Ingredient | Grams | Baker's Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
2 Cups | Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter | 500 Grams | 217% |
3 Each | Large Eggs | 150 Grams | 65% |
2 Cups | Whole Milk | 480 Grams | 210% |
1 3/4 Cups | Freshly Milled Whole Wheat flour | 230 Grams | 100% |
2 tsp | Baking Powder | 8 Grams | 3.5% |
1 tsp | Baking Soda | 5 Grams | 2% |
1 1/2 tsp | Salt | 8 Grams | 3.5% |
Mix the batter with a few quick, sure strokes until the flour is just wet, some lumps are OK. The baking soda will react with the sourdough starter and the batter will be rather bubbly, and that's OK. Pour the batter onto a hot (375-400F/190 - 205C) griddle in about 2 TBSP measures. If you have no way to tell the temperature of your griddle, drop a drop of water on it. The water should boil on contact. If it hits, rolls, and then boils, let the griddle warm up a bit more.
When the pancake top gets bubbly, peek at the bottom side. If the bottom is a nice shade of brown, flip the pancake and cook until the side that is now down is a nice shade of brown. This recipe makes about 28 4" pancakes. Serve hot with your choice of toppings. Since we mentioned toppings, if you have never tried Ginger People's Ginger Syrup, it's great if you love ginger!
As mentioned above, we used a VERY exhausted and sour whole wheat sourdough starter to make this. The pancakes had a very distinct sour taste and we loved it! However, the toppings did mellow the sour flavor.
And that's it for today! Until next time, may your dough always rise, even if it's just a batter and all you're making is flapjacks!
-Mike