The BEST One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
These one-bowl buttermilk pancakes are a weekend staple. The recipe yields a ton, and the end result is fluffy pancake heaven! 🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞
Over the weekend, I said goodbye to my electric griddle, a gadget I’ve had for over a decade, one I’ve loved and hated over the years for various reasons: loved for its large, flat surface and, um, well, that’s really it.
My electric griddle is big and cumbersome, awkward to find space to both use and stow. For 10 years I’ve used it solely for pancakes, which has been reason enough to hang on to it because I find cooking pancakes in skillets tricky — even in my largest skillet there isn’t enough space to maneuver a spatula around more than three pancakes.
But over the weekend, I finally thanked my griddle for its service then said sayonara. What sparked this civilized departure? It was the Baking Steel griddle, a slab of thick-gauge steel designed for both stovetop and in-oven use. Yes, this griddle doubles as a pizza Steel — it’s 10 lbs. heavier than the original Baking Steel, which means it will make your oven behave even more like a wood-fired hearth.
I have been experimenting with this gadget for several weeks now, making pancakes for the kiddos, breakfast tacos for Ben and me, and English muffins for us all. What I love is not only its versatility but its shape and design — it takes up no extra space to use because it sits on the stove top; it takes up little space when it’s stowed because it measures about 1/2-inch in thickness even when it’s tucked into its awesome storage sleeve.
The Baking Steel griddle’s uses extend far beyond the dishes I am showing here, however: check out Serious Eats’ Kenji Lopez-Alt’s exhaustive research in this post. Food and Wine was equally impressed.
The Baking Steel griddle is available for order now.
Before we get to the giveaway, let’s discuss these pancakes. Pancakes have never been my forte, but for about a year now, I’ve had success with the kitchn’s lofty buttermilk pancakes, which are delicious and relatively simple to make. The peculiar trick to making these pancakes is that you separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, then incorporate the yolks into the batter before the whites. The whites are never beaten. It’s odd but oddly it works — the pancakes never taste so good as when I follow the kitchn’s method.
That said, this method requires three bowls: one for the dry ingredients, one for the yolks, buttermilk, milk and butter, and one for the whites. This, for me, first thing in the morning is too many, and because I’ve found that when I use one bowl or three my children are none the wiser, I stick to one: I whisk the eggs directly into the dry ingredients as though I am making pasta, then add the milk and buttermilk, and finally the butter. Because I melt the butter in a liquid measuring cup in the microwave then transfer it directly to the dishwasher, I don’t consider it a dish — that’s fair, right?
These pancakes have become a family fave and, with the griddle on hand, a weekly staple. The batter makes enough for a ton of pancakes and stores just fine in the fridge…sure, it turns a little grey overnight, but again, the little ones don’t mind.
For this pancake batter, incorporate the eggs into the dry ingredients as though you are making pasta dough:
Then add the milk and buttermilk and finally the melted butter:
A pancake breakfast is a happy breakfast…
The BEST One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 18-20 three-inch pancakes
Description
Adapted from the kitchn’s recipe for lofty buttermilk pancakes. The recipe below differs only by method not by ingredients. Check out the kitchn’s post if you want to try their egg-separating method — don’t worry, you don’t have to beat any whites!
When cooking these pancakes on the Baking Steel griddle, I suggest heating your griddle before you begin making your batter. I have a flat-top cooking surface, and I have the best results warming the griddle up slowly over low to medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. If you have a gas range, you will be able to control the temperature better.
Finally, the best trick I’ve learned for cooking pancakes is to go small — I use my 2-tablespoon measuring cup to portion out batter. The pancakes cook quickly and evenly when I use this small scoop.
If you want to use sourdough discard in this recipe, simply cut back some of the flour and water, preferably by weight. So, for example, if you want to use 100 grams of sourdough discard (at 100% hydration) in this recipe, cut back 50 grams of the flour and 50 grams of the buttermilk. That would call for using 270 grams of flour and 418 grams of buttermilk.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (320 g) flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 g) salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (468 grams) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup milk
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- Canola or peanut oil for frying
Instructions
- If using a Baking Steel griddle, begin warming it up over low heat.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat with a fork till the eggs are whisked and incorporated into the surrounding flour, as if you were making pasta. Add the buttermilk and milk, and stir with spatula to combine. Add the melted, cooled butter and stir until combined.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, film with a thin layer of oil. After about 30 seconds, when the oil shimmers but is not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and use a soup spoon (I have a one-eighth cup (2 T) measuring cup, which I love for pancakes) to drop in heaping spoonfuls of pancake batter. Note: If you are using a BS griddle, adjust heat so griddle radiates heat and feels hot but not smoking — this takes just a teensy bit of practice.
- The batter will spread into a pancake about 3 inches wide. Cook for about 2 1/2 minutes. (If the pancake scorches or the oil smokes, lower the heat.) When the bubbles that form on the edges of the pancakes look dry and airy, use a thin spatula to gently lift one side and peek underneath. If the pancake is golden brown, flip and cook on the other side for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until the bottom of the pancake is golden brown.
- Transfer to a cooling rack briefly before serving. Scrape any stray crumbs or scraps out of the skillet, add a little more oil, and continue to cook the remaining batter.
Notes
Recipe Notes from the kitchn:
- If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can use plain yogurt instead. Just use about 2/3 cup and thin it with some milk until it reaches the 1 cup mark. You can also quickly make a buttermilk substitute by mixing 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar with 2 cups of milk.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
418 Comments on “The BEST One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes”
One-bowl dish? How about? Throw everything the the one pressure cooker dish, such as a green chile with chicken.
I would love this! I love my pizza steel, I can just imagine that a griddle steel would be great.
My most favorite one “skillet” dish the other night was a skillet chocolate cake. Does that count? 🙂
My favorite one-bowl dish is an amazing chocolate banana bread I learned to make when I was a kid!
My favorite one bowl dish is hummus. Plop everything in the food processor and whiz away.
My mother’s recipe for one pot brownies – which I have been making for at least 50 years – is my favorite one anything recipes. Melt the chocolate and oil on the stove top, add the rest of the ingredients in stages, scrape them into a pan and, voila!, 25-30 minutes later delicious, fudgy brownies.
Your buttermilk pancakes made me think of a yummy Strawberry Buttermilk cake that I make. Its really simple and easy, but I think it does require two bowls. Its delicious!
If I had the baking steel griddle I might be making pancakes every weekend! But a steak on the baking steel in the oven sounds fantastic, too.
I love the way measuring ingredients with a scale can make many recipes use only one bowl. If I had to pick a favorite one-bowl recipe, I’d say granola.
Thank you for the opportunity to win a Baking Steel griddle!
would love this!! Love your blog!! Your food always looks so good!
I love the maple sea salt biscuits that were posted on here. Yum!!!
Thank you so much for offering such a wonderful giveaway! One of my favorite one-bowl dishes is oatmeal. I love steel cut oats mixed with fresh fruit, honey, almond slivers, etc.
I would have to say that my favorite one-bowl recipe is a big salad with all kinds of yummy add-ins, such as avocado, tomatoes, bacon bits, cheese, and black olives!
sourdough pizza, one bowl, into fridge & would cook up really great on a brand new baking steel…..;-)
I would say brownies, so many recipes only need one bowl, and a recipe like that is often excellent! Thank you! Jen
Oh my gooooooodness. I’m drooling over this post!
I love my steel but now I’ll need to get the griddle. Love the well to catch the butter. My favorite one bowl dish is your bircher muesli and your brownies!
Love these recipes! Will try the buttermilk one this weekend
Buttermilk pancakes yum.
My favorite one-bowl meal is actually a one-pot meal….any kind of soup. Everything goes in one pot and yumminess comes out! I do also have a good recipe for a one-bowl chocolate cake.
Lemon poppyseed cake
Love this pancake recipe.
Thank you
Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are my all-time favorite one-bowl dish!
My favorite one bowl meal is overnight French toast: mix the custard, add the bread, and pour into a buttered baking dish. Breakfast in under an hour!!
Fresh tomato summer salsa — chop, mix and scoop with chips 😉
Almost purchased a griddle at a big box store last weekend, decided to do some research on which one I wanted and to see if I wanted to spend a little more $$$ for more quality to last. The griddle looks like all my answers. Can’t wait to try your recipes!
Love no knead bread. I have a baking steel for pizza. I would love the griddle
Thanks!!!
Four-ingredient peanut butter cookies! I may have to make a batch now…
my current favorite one bowl meal is your summer veggie strata!
Does a crockpot count as one bowl?? I often make pulled pork tacos – slow cooking pork and veggies in my crockpot. Then, I heat tortillas on my rack in the oven. If I won this griddle that would be my new way of heating the tortillas!
I like making fruit crisps with an oatmeal topping – I can mix it in the pan! This baking steel would be convenient for so many flat breads – I currently use a cast iron skillet to cook English muffins.
Best one bowl recipe: pizza crust in a food processor, as presented on video by Baking Steel and adapted from Kenji’s recipe on Serious Eats. So Simple, so yummy, gets me compliments every time. I’ve ordered 2 griddles and A pizza steel as wedding gifts in the past 3 months, does that get me a free one ????
Homemade sourdough bread – which sounds like it would come out even better baked on one of these griddles. Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂