Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes (video)

These amazing buttermilk pancakes are light and fluffy. This is my absolutely favorite recipe for pancakes! Drizzle them with maple syrup and serve with fresh fruit for a perfect sweet breakfast.

Ingredients

Below you will find information about the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. For the measurements and detailed instructions scroll down to the printable recipe card.

Here’s what you need to make these delicious pancakes:

Buttermilk is an important ingredient in this recipe. Thanks to buttermilk, these pancakes have an amazing flavor and are soft and moist. Acidic buttermilk reacts with alkaline baking soda which makes these pancakes so fluffy. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use this pancake recipe with milk.

Clarified butter is best for cooking pancakes (also very easy to make at home!), it won’t burn as quickly as regular butter so you don’t have to wipe the pan after each batch of pancakes. If you don’t have it on hand just use a blend of vegetable oil and regular butter or just regular butter (wipe the pan with a paper towel when the butter will brown too much).

You can add more vanilla extract to make the vanilla flavor more pronounced.

What you could also add:

• chocolate chips
• blueberries (check out these blueberry buttermilk pancakes!)
• strawberries – see this strawberry pancake recipe
• raspberries
• if you’d like to add bananas to the batter you can add sliced bananas on top of the pancakes while they’re cooking on the pan or you can make this banana pancakes recipe with mashed bananas in the batter

How to make buttermilk pancakes step-by-step

STEP 1: Add the eggs, buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, melted, and slightly cooled butter into a large bowl.

STEP 2: Whisk until combined.

STEP 3: Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a medium bowl. Stir with a spoon.

STEP 4: Sift the mixture into the bowl with wet ingredients (sifting is optional but it makes fluffier pancakes).

STEP 5: Whisk until just combined. The batter can have small lumps, don’t overmix it.

STEP 6: Heat a small amount of clarified butter (or a mix of butter and oil) in a non-stick pan over medium/medium-low heat (this will vary depending on the pan and the stove). When the pan is hot and the butter bubbling, scoop about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake into the pan (don’t make them too big, they will puff up).

STEP 7: Cook the pancakes until golden on the bottom and you see bubbles on top. Flip the pancakes over using a large flat spatula and cook until browned on the other side. Add some more butter before adding the next portion of the batter to the pan, repeat with the remaining batter.

Enjoy!

Buttermilk pancakes toppings / serving suggestions

• I like to serve these pancakes with a small drizzle of maple syrup, a dollop of plain yogurt, and some fresh fruit.
• Another amazing topping for these pancakes is bananas foster topping.
• Try them with these sauteed cinnamon apples.
• Try them with jam (raspberry or blueberry jam is great) and whipped cream/yogurt.
• Serve them with fruit sauce such as strawberry sauce (pureed strawberries sweetened with a small amount of powdered sugar) or blueberry sauce.
• For extra indulgence, you may want to try them with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

How to store pancakes

You can store them for up to 3 days in the fridge. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or put them in tightly closed containers so they won’t dry out.

How to reheat pancakes

Reheat them in a dry pan on both sides until warm – they will still taste very good. They make a great make-ahead breakfast.

How long to store pancake batter

You should cook the pancakes as quickly as possible after you have prepared your batter. Baking soda reacts with buttermilk and together they make pancakes fluffy, but this reaction doesn’t last long. If you have prepared your batter and can’t cook the pancakes right away, you can store it for up to 2 hours on the counter (and longer in the fridge). The pancakes will come out fine in terms of taste but they won’t be light and fluffy, but rather gummy.

How to freeze pancakes

Pancakes freeze very well! Wrap them in plastic foil and freeze for up to 3-6 months. Thaw in the fridge then reheat in a dry pan on both sides until warm.

Top tips for making perfect pancakes

• Don’t overmix the batter or the pancakes will be dense and not fluffy.
• Clarified butter is best for cooking pancakes (also very easy to make at home!), but if you don’t have it on hand just use vegetable oil and regular butter.
• Cook them over medium or medium-low heat – this will depend on the type of your pan and on how powerful your stovetop is – this is something that you just have to test in your kitchen. If the temperature is too low the pancakes will soak up fat and be dense and greasy but if it is too high the pancakes may be browned on the outside (or even burned) but won’t be cooked through in the middle.
• The pan should be well-heated.
• The best pan for cooking pancakes is a crepe pan or a griddle but they will also turn just as fine in a regular skillet (must be non-stick, though).
• How to correctly measure flour: I’m using the “spoon and level method” so 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g.  Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife. Too much flour added to pancake batter will result in dry and dense pancakes. I recommend using a digital scale for perfect and consistent results.

More pancake recipes you may like

• Bananas Foster Pancakes
• Apple Cinnamon Pancakes (with buttermilk)
• Polish Apple Pancakes (with yeast)
• Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes
• Buttermilk Pumpkin Pancakes
• Lemon Raspberry Ricotta Pancakes
• Lemon Blueberry Sheet Pan Pancakes

Here you can find all my pancake and crepe recipes.

Recipe FAQs

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