The BEST One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes
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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”
Blueberry muffins are my favorite one-bowl dish!
I have a one-bowl brownie recipe that I really like! It’s supposed to use two bowls but one works just fine! What is it about extra bowls that makes things seem sooo disproportionately tedious??
My best friend gave me the best brownie recipe….super simple and only one bowl to clean.
Black bean and veggie burritos. Scones( I mix it all up in the food processor.). But really I don’t mind using extra bowls as long as they can go in the dish washer!
Texas sheet cake, no, wait, chilaquiles is my favorite one bowl meal!
This is a hard question! I think that my favorite one-bowl dish is guacamole. I’m not sure if it “counts,” since it’s not cooked, but it’s a delicious way to dirty one dish.
In love with baked mini-French Toast. Bread cut into cubes, eggs, milk, vanilla, a bit of sugar, and if you really want something special, add chocolate chips! Bake in ramekins. A winner!
Shortbread
Wow! Everything looks so awesome and delicious! Lurve the English Muffin Experiment. Where can I find the recipe for those beautiful english muffins? Have you tried making them with your mother’s awesome peasant bread recipe yet? I will be dreaming about those english muffins, I’m sure!
Heck, yeah, I want to enter this awesome Baking Steel Griddle giveaway. I so need one of these (especially as Autumn is approaching and that means Bread Baking, Homemade pizza and Big Breakfast Times ahead! Plus, I really want to try that english muffin recipe!
Favorite one-bowl recipe? Your mother’s easy-peasy peasant bread recipe wins hand down! I really mean it! 🙂 <3
Thanks again for all your hard work and sharing your love of cooking with us!
Big hugs! 🙂 <3
I make an Olive Oil Cake that uses only one bowl. A friend of mine loves it so much that she has requested it as her wedding cake next year!
One bowl brownies are my go to dessert.
One bowl recipe: pizza dough! Perfect for the other side of that griddle
Anything! \o/
Easy day chocolate dump cake (from Martha’s website)!
Right now it’s English muffins…and that griddle would be perfect!
My sister-in-law, efficient gourmet that she is, mixes her brownies right in the well-seasoned cast iron skillet that she uses to bake them. It’s the ultimate one-dish dessert for a crowd, doubling as birthday cake on many occasions.
My weekly loaf of sourdough bread is my favorite one bowl dish! xo
My favorite One Bowl thing to make s from a One Bowl list; it’s these Honey Corn Muffins: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/04/honey-corn-muffins.html This time of year my husband likes them with Hatch Chiles added (which we just bought a 30lb bag of roasted!)
My favorite is beef stew in the crock pot
One bowl
Chili
My favorite one bowl dish is loaded potato soap.
Those Ensglish muffins look so good!
Fav one bowl dish would be chili
I love to do peach dump cake. It’s so easy and you only need one bowl!
Ohhhh, that baking steel griddle looks amazing! I am a huge fan of the cast iron pans and use them for anything and everything, but to have a flat and large alternative…
As for one bowl dishes. I streamline most of my baking into one bowl wonders, carefully. Perhaps some of my baked dishes come out on the rustic side, but using cast iron, feeding folks in an old farm house kitchen, it all seem to works.
Love your blog and recipes, thank you!
My fav one bowl recipe is a skillet chocolate chip cookie. Made in a cast iron skillet. It’s super easy and nummy!
chocolate chip cookies for the boys
My favorite one bowl recipe is fried rice or jazzed up soup noodles! 🙂
I honestly don’t have a favorite recipe. But I’d try this pancake one!
I cannot wait to try these pancakes!!
My favorite one bowl recipe would have to be chocolate cake ?
… I absolutely love your recipe for Buttermilk- Blueberry Breakfast Cake
It’s AMAZING!!
Not sure I have one but I am willing to try anything : )