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!
K. Grote
Hi there,
These were the best pancakes I’ve ever made. To put that in context, Though I was never a great cook, as a young man I was a breakfast cook laboring under the stern gaze of old world European chefs in fancy hotel restaurants, working class close up the bar, all night diner style breakfast joints, etc. and so on, so for me, that’s saying something 🙂 Really blew my mind. Thank you! I didn’t trust the sugar, so included only 2 tablespoons and thinned with about a quarter cup of whole milk at the end, but otherwise stuck with the recipe, down to the salted butter serving suggestion, which really works here. Such great stuff!
Madilyn
Made these pancakes this morning with left over buttermilk from making butter. Absolutely loved the recipe, it made really delicious pancakes. Probably one of the best I’ve ever made. Thank you for sharing!
susan
best homemade pancakes.
Paulie J
Delicious! But I would like to see this recipe pared back to only using 2 cups of buttermilk. Using 2 1/4 cups requires me to buy a full quart of buttermilk, rather than a pint… and then I don’t even have enough to make a second batch.
Tam
use a quarter cup milk with a squeeze of lemon or 1/4 teaspoon vinegar, that sits for 5 minutes to make up the difference.
easier than changing recipe too 1 and 3/4 egg. 1 and 4/5ths teaspoon baking powder
Larry A
An alternative would be to get powdered buttermilk and mix it in with your fresh buttermilk Or, take a chance and mix in 1/4 cup of milk. How much damage could that do?
dee mccluskey
I am so impressed with this recipe. 67 years old and finally found the perfect pancake. Easy to make. Didn’t have a wooden spoon, but a spatula does just fine. I first used this recipe on “pancake balls”. Absolutely the best. I first baked the,”Marry me Cookies” Excellent. I’m impressed and look forward to your expert touch. God be with you, dee
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the pancakes so much, Dee! 🙂
K Grote
Easy fix! Pour your pint of buttermilk into a slightly larger container. Mix into it a quarter cup milk. Leave it out at room temperature for a day or even overnight, et voila! 2 and a quarter cups buttermilk.
H.R. Cooper
Delicious fluffy pancakes. My whole family enjoyed this recipe. My kids (10yo & 12yo) followed the recipe with my supervision. I added an extra Tbsp of sugar and 1/8 tsp of butter extract.
Sandra Shockley
These pancakes are everything you said and more. I made them for the third time this a.m. and they turn out perfect each time. Thank you for sharing and I hope to make all your classic recipes. I am 70 this year and you are never too old to learn.
Rachel
Amazing! Delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Jennifer Walters
I really enjoyed the video tutorial.
Thank you the tips make it so much better to make perfect pancakes the 1st time around! Now to go make buttermilk pancakes for dinner! Yep dinner!! (bye bye bisquick box 🙂 )
Kerry Fisherkeller
Excellent tips on making good pancakes. My only problem is with the ratio of buttermilk to flour. If I follow the recipe exactly my batter is too thick and comes out more like biscuits on the griddle. This recipe calls for a milk to flour ratio of about 1.7 by weight. I use Lucern 1.5% buttermilk and King Arthur AP flour. 530 ml of milk weighs about 420 g for Lucern (is very airy). I find by increasing the volume of milk by 25% (weight ratio 2.1) gives me the “best” moist pancakes that are thinner but still so light they float off the plate (and into my belly!). A 1.9-2.1 ratio gives pancakes that are like restaurant pancakes (ex. Original Pancake House). Thinner also means more golden brown outside to cake inside for those who like that flavor profile. Cheers to pancake lovers who keep experimenting!
vera
Tried many different recipes for buttermilk pancakes but this is my new go to! pancakes turned out fluffly and delicious! my family loved them big smiles all around!!!
Rhiannon Embree
if we use salted butter, do we just omit the salt in the dry ingredients?
Sam
Hi Rhiannon! I would just use a scant 1/2 teaspoon of salt here. 🙂
Kayla
Amazing recipe! I made homemade buttermilk w/ apple cider vineagar and only used 2 cups of the buttermilk vs 2 1/4. Best, fluffiest pancakes!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the pancakes, Kayla! 😊
Jacqueline
Holy moly these blow thr socks off any other pancake recipe I’ve ever tried! Do they freeze well?
Sam
Hi Jacqueline! I have never personally frozen them, but others have reported doing so with success. 🙂
M Andrews
It was awesomely simple. the cakes were super fluffy, and had a great small crispy texture. nice recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review 🥰 We’re happy you enjoyed the pancakes!
Tamara Curtis
This is my number one buttermilk pancake recipe as it is very fluffy and easy, buttermilk pancake recipe. Totally must have for every pancake lover. Cheers! Tami
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review, Tami! 💜
Nancy
OMG best pancakes I have EVER had. This will be my go to recipe. the only thing I did different was use GF flour as it was what I had on hand. Perfect. So lovely. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!!
Eve
I’m sitting here eating these pancakes and they are SOOOO GOOOD. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly.
Sam
Wonderful! Thank you for trying my recipe, Eve, I’m thrilled you enjoyed them so much!