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!
Julie
The batter was very watery and the pancakes were as flat as paper. I weighed the flour, made sure all the ingredients were room temperature, had plenty of flour bumps, so I didn’t over mix… followed all the advice. Not sure what happened. I was disappointed.
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this, Julie! Did you make any substitutes?
Julie
Not a single one! I don’t know what happened!
Sam
Ugh that’s a bummer! It’s definitely not an expected result. 🙁 Sometimes things just don’t turn out. I hope you’ll give them another try. They really are delicious! 🙂
AK
I made this recipe twice, cutting it in half each time. It yields about six pancakes. The second time I made them, my friend tried some and said they were fluffy! From now on, whenever I want pancakes, I will use this recipe!
Jessica M
This is the best pancake recipe I’ve ever made. 20/10.
Penelope
Great recipe! My family’s favorite! We add mini chocolate chips 😊 Thank you!
Skye
I used coconut sugar, homemade kefir, grassfed ghee, and home milled flour. They turned out beautiful! Pinning this one.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Skye! Thank you for the feedback! 🙂
Walt
I like a nice brown crust on pancakes,
Sam
If your heat is high enough on your pan you should get a nice brown, like in the pictures. 🙂
Pear
Great recipe. I usually don’t have buttermilk or buttermilk powder, so I’ll mix plain whole milk yogurt with whole milk and it turns out delicious. Kids love these pancakes!
Nicole Dickerson
My first time making these and I love them! I was careful not to over mix so the batter was thick and the best word I can come up with is slightly lumpy. Can I save the batter or is it best to make all the pancakes and save them instead?
Sam
Hi Nicole! Little lumps are perfectly acceptable. It sounds like you did everything right. Did you compare it to the batter in the video? I hope you love them! 🙂
Busy mom
I cooked these forever and the middle was still raw and mushy while the edges were crispy and almost burnt. what am I doing wrong?
Sam
Your pan may be a little too hot when adding the batter. 🙁
O
The exact same thing for me. I’ve never cooked pancakes for so long and them still being mushy inside.
Sam
It’s important to get the right pan heat here. You don’t want the pan to be too hot, but if it’s not warm enough they won’t brown. 🙁
Jessica
I have made these before for my family and they were absolutely delicious!!
I need to make them for a large group, do you suggest just doubling the recipe or are there specific measurement adjustments? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Jessica! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them! I would double all of the ingredients if doubling the recipe. 🙂
AWilliams
This recipe is easy and is great every time. My son is a picky eater and goes to town!
Cj
Taste was good. Texture was bad. Very spongy
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, CJ! These can come out spongy due to over-mixing or potentially cooking at the wrong heat. 🙁
Nicola
Way too watery
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this, Nicola! Did you make any substitutions? Did you weigh your flour?
Angela
250g of flour is not 2 cups?
Sam
Hi Angela! 250g of flour is 2 cups, standardized across my website. You may see variations from site to site but generally a cup of flour is very close to 125g. 🙂
Han
Hello , can these be made ahead and re-heated and if they can how would you recommend doing this ?
many thanks
Han
Sam
Hi Han! The toaster works pretty well for reheating them if they will fit. The oven also works pretty well. I would set the oven to 350 and bake them for a few minutes. I would avoid using the microwave.
Nilmini
I just made these with gluten-free Bob’s 1 to 1 baking flour and Organic Valley Cultured Low Fat buttermilk and they turned out soooo good!!! I cut down the recipe using a recipe converter to just 2 pancakes for myself but still used 1 whole egg. I also only had salted butter on hand. I mixed the wet ingredients in until barely combined and they came out thick and fluffy. This is the only recipe I will ever make again! Thank you so much