I’ve got breakfast covered today with my classic Buttermilk Pancakes recipe — made completely from scratch (and tips to make them if you don’t have buttermilk, too!)! I’ll be showing you how to make thick, fluffy pancakes that can be ready in under 15 minutes! Recipe includes a how-to video!
The Best Pancake Recipe
Buttermilk pancakes are an American classic breakfast food, but despite their unfussy ingredient list, too often people grab for the box mix because it’s just “easier”. Too many home bakers have struggled with dense, flat, or rubbery pancakes, or ones that have charred exteriors, raw centers, or are just all-around lacking in flavor. Today we’re going to fix that with my favorite, fool-proof buttermilk pancake recipe.
While you’d be hard-pressed to find a truly complicated buttermilk pancake recipe, many recipes sadly leave out important tips and tricks that can make or break your breakfast. Do you know the right time to flip? The right heat for your stovetop? Which substitutions are acceptable and which definitely aren’t? How to make buttermilk pancakes if you don’t even have buttermilk?
My recipe has not only been carefully perfected to yield fat, fluffy, and super flavorful pancakes (the cousin to my paper-thin crepes), but I’m also answering all of these questions and sharing my super simple tips and tricks so you’ll never reach for that box mix ever again.
Grab your (preferably non-stick) skillet and get ready for perfect, golden pancakes every time. Let’d do this.
What You Need for Perfect Pancakes
This recipe is easy and uses pantry staples, but let’s talk about a handful of the ingredients before we get started:
- Buttermilk: When combined with the baking soda, this gives the pancakes a nice lift, making them thick and fluffy. It’s purpose isn’t only a chemical one, though, it also gives buttermilk pancakes a great flavor with a classic but subtle tang. See my FAQ section below to make this recipe if you don’t have buttermilk.
- Eggs. Ideally these should be room temperature. Ideally all your ingredients should be so that the batter combines easily but I’m realistic about the fact that most people aren’t going to wake up two hours early to set their buttermilk out to come to room temperature and I’d never ask you to do something I don’t do myself. Fortunately, this recipe is fairly resilient.
- Butter. This should be melted. Do this first so it has time to cool a bit before you add it to your buttermilk.
- Baking powder and baking soda. The combination of these two leaveners give the pancakes the perfect fluffiness and lift.
- Flour. I recommend using all-purpose flour. You can experiment with substituting some of the flour with whole wheat flour, but since that is a much thirstier flour you might need a bit more buttermilk to keep the batter from being too thick. Self rising flour is not recommended as the baking powder and salt are already accounted for.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whisk together buttermilk, egg, and vanilla separately and drizzle the melted butter into the mixture while whisking. Add to the dry ingredients.
- Very gently fold together the wet and dry ingredients until almost completely combined. Don’t overdo it or your pancakes will be flat and dense rather than fluffy.
- Cook on medium heat until golden brown on each side. Don’t crank up the heat, this will yield pancakes with burnt outsides and raw centers, and that’s just sad 🙁
SAM’S TIP: You can tell your buttermilk pancakes are ready to flip when the edges begin to look set and the bubbles in the batter begin to burst. At this point you should easily be able to flip a spatula underneath to gently lift up an edge and take a peek: look for a golden brown color!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Zach and I often make a half batch of buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, it divides easily and results are exactly the same! For the buttermilk, you would use 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons.
You can use my buttermilk substitute recipe instead (you only need milk and vinegar or lemon juice). Pour 2 Tablespoons + ¾ teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into a large measuring cup then add milk until you have the 2 ¼ cup called for. Stir.
However you should know that “homemade” buttermilk is thinner than the real thing. You may not need to use the full 2 ¼ cup called for, it could make your batter runny and your pancakes too thin. If using the substitute, set aside about ½ cup of your buttermilk (so only use 1 ½ cups) and use the recipe as indicated. If the batter seems too thick, gradually add more of the buttermilk substitute as needed.
Most likely this is a result of over-mixing the batter, this can yield flat, dense, or even rubbery pancakes. Do not over-mix your pancake batter — I can not overstate how important this is. When combining your wet and dry ingredients, gently fold together with a spoon or spatula until just combined. A few flour streaks remaining in the batter is actually a good thing!
Absolutely! You can add up to a cup of add-ins to your buttermilk pancake batter. Because you want to avoid over-mixing your batter, it is best to fold these in when your flour is halfway incorporated rather than waiting until you’ve already mostly combined your wet and dry ingredients.
You can also skip the mix-ins and instead top off your pancakes with whipped cream or blueberry sauce, instead. Or do mix-ins and fancy toppings, I don’t judge!
Yes you can! While I have a waffle recipe that I love and would recommend, my buttermilk pancake batter actually makes delicious waffles, too.
These are great with simple butter and syrup, but sometimes I like to get fancy and add whipped cream, strawberry sauce, blueberry sauce, caramel sauce, chocolate gravy, or hot fudge sauce!
Have you ever tried a pancake sundae before with ice cream and toppings? Not health food, but so good!
Alright, I think that pretty much covers it! I hope you’ll try these out and please let me know what you think!!
Enjoy!
Other Breakfast Recipes You Might Like:
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!
Best Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups buttermilk¹ (530ml)
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten, room temperature preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled (57g)
Recommended Equipment
- Non-stick skillet
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, until well-combined.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together buttermilk,, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Take your melted butter and slowly drizzle it into your wet ingredients while whisking, stirring until well-combined (the butter may separate and curdle if your other ingredients are cold, this is OK, just whisk to combine).
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon to stir until just combined — do not overmix your pancake batter or your pancakes will be flat. Use a light hand when stirring, and a few flour streaks in the batter are fine.
- Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray or lightly brush with canola oil and place on burner on medium-low heat.
- Allow skillet to preheat before adding batter (about 5 minutes, it's good for your pancake batter to sit several minutes as well, which is why you prepared that before preheating your pan), and once skillet is heated (I usually test this by hovering my hand several inches above the pan and making sure I can feel the heat radiating from it) scoop pancake batter into pan (I use about ½-⅔ cup of batter per pancake).
- Allow pancake to cook until edges begin to appear cooked and bubbles in batter begin to burst. Using a pancake spatula, carefully flip pancake and continue to cook several more minutes until pancake is golden brown.
- Repeat until all batter is used — I recommend spraying or brushing the pan between each batch of pancakes.
- Serve warm topped with salted butter and maple syrup!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Buttermilk Pancake recipe originally published 01/29/2018, updated just in time for Fat Tuesday! Recipe is unchanged but additional tips have been added and a video is now included!
Beverly Blackwelder
This is a wonderful recipe. I bought fresh buttermilk for another recipe and had lots left over, so decided to try this recipe. Since leftover buttermilk can be frozen, I’ll freeze several 1-cup containers and always have it on hand for whenever we want buttermilk pancakes. They were easy to make and were so light and fluffy, so will always use this recipe. Thank you!!!
Seedra
These are literally the best homemade pancakes ever. I make these at least 2-3 times a month. They are easy and come together so nicely. The perfect fluffy homemade pancake. You have a forever fan!!
Christy
Light, fluffy and just the right amount of vanilla. These are really the best pancakes I’ve ever had and my grandkids said the same thing!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love comments like these, Christy! So happy the pancakes were a hit for your family ❤️
Gene
My new go to pancake! Definitely a non stick skillet recipe. I scorched a couple to death on a cast iron griddle (my grandma had a set in stone rule that you had to cook buttermilk pancakes on cast iron). Definitely gave an old guy a killer fluffy new pancake. My family approved (even the golden retriever)
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy everyone (including the dog!) liked them, Gene! ❤️
Morgan Golladay
Oh,MG!!! Fantastic recipe! This is a keeper!
Tanya
I followed the recipe exactly, but my batter is really thick. How thick should it be? It’s not at all runny.
Sam
Hi Tanya! You can actually see the consistency in the video. It is a thicker batter, but shouldn’t be cookie dough like thick. 🙂
Eunice
Wow. I am impressed. This is delicious…and I used egg and buttermilk substitutes! As indicated in the directions, Initially, I thought my batter was too thin due to the buttermilk substitute, so I added a tad bit more flour, but as I allowed the batter to sit for a few minutes, it thickened—a lot! I made one small pancake to test my results, but it came out great and was delicious. I still added a small amount of water so that the batter would pour more easily, and that pancake came out great as well. Overall, great recipe.
Tonya P.
This is my go to recipe for buttermilk pancakes. I tweak it a little bit by adding 1 tsp almond extract and 2 tsp vanilla. I sometimes add 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Thank you for this recipe!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yummm–that sounds amazing, Tonya! Thanks for using our recipe 🥰
Brent
The pancakes were EXCELLENT!!!!! I added fresh blueberries to mine and topped it off with a little powder sugar on top. Thanks again!
Carla
Made waffles out of this recipe and my husband loved them. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were a hit for you, Carla! Thanks for trying our recipe 🥰
Thomas
Very best pancakes I ever had
Andrea
Another home run Sam! We are heading out on another trip soon and I want to make them while we are away. Can I mix all the dry ingredients in advance and store in a ziploc so that I don’t have to pack everything separately? Thanks again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Definitely! Enjoy, Andrea 😊
Carolyn
I made 1/2 batch using the lemon juice + milk trick and added some freshly picked blueberries. They were delicious! I usually like my pancakes more like crepes, so I was careful to follow your directions about not over stirring and using less fake buttermilk b/c it’s thin. Mine were not as fluffy as yours look in the photo, but lots fluffier than my usual crepe-like pancakes! I appreciate finding out your technique for fluffiness!
Kayla
I ran out of butter…can I use vegetable oil instead? Or will that ruin the pancakes?
Sam
Hi Kayla! It should still work. You’ll lose some flavor, but they should still turn out.
Jane Penan
The pancakes came out great taste wise they looked like I made them. I made Blueberry Pancakes . In my 70’s and this is the first time I made tasty pancakes. I think my stove was too hot and they did burn a little but still delicious . They look and are homemade. I followed all the directions . No fail pancakes. I am freezing them. They don’t need anything on top of them.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
As long as they taste good, that’s all that matters! Thanks for trying our recipe, Jane 💙 Enjoy!
Seedra
This recipe is spot on for homemade pancakes. I love it !!! This is my go to recipe over and over again.