The Best Pancake Recipe
Light and fluffy buttermilk pancakes with a secret ingredient to make it extra tender. This is the only pancake recipe you will ever need!
We are serious about our homemade pancakes in our home. My husband whips up a batch of buttermilk pancakes almost every single weekend. I am picky about my pancakes and we always have to have buttermilk stocked in our refrigerator at all times. It is definitely a difference maker in pancakes!
I have been hearing about a light and fluffy pancake recipe with a secret ingredient that makes the texture just melt in your mouth. I had to try it out and after making a few tweaks to the recipe, I am sharing it with you. This is truly the best pancakes recipe!
So what makes a perfect pancake? In my humble opinion, it needs to have a proper balance of dry ingredients to wet ingredients. A dry pancake has too much flour or dry ingredients and not enough buttermilk, eggs, or butter. A tender pancake comes from the buttermilk or drumroll please....SOUR CREAM. Yep there's your secret ingredient.
The beauty of sour cream is that it does similar things as buttermilk; however, it is more of a creamy solid than buttermilk. This means you can add both buttermilk AND sour cream without the pancake batter becoming too runny and not holding its shape. This is genius! You end up with the most perfect pancake texture. These are the best sour cream pancakes!
Another ingredient that is a must when making homemade pancakes is melted butter. You know I am a huge butter fan because it adds so much creamy flavor to any recipe. Also, remember to butter your skillet or griddle to give your pancakes the nice light golden color on the outside.
Since we want our buttermilk pancakes to be light and fluffy, whipping the egg whites and folding them into the batter creates loft. Loft is good with pancakes since we don't want them to be completely flat. Taking the time to separate the eggs and whip the egg whites is another difference maker.
How to make the Best Pancakes Recipe:
- Start by separating the egg yolks and egg whites. Place the egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. This is important to get that trademark fluffy pancake. Set aside.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, buttermilk, and sour cream. When I am making homemade pancakes, I reach for full-fat sour cream for extra rich thickness.
- Slowly add in melted butter. You don't want to go crazy and dump the entire bowl of melted butter into cold buttermilk as it may curdle. Just slowly drizzle in the melted butter so it warms up slowly but surely.
- Add the dry ingredients -- flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. I like to use two different leavening agents to ensure the pancakes are extra fluffy.
- Carefully fold in the egg whites. Be careful not to over-stir because it may deflate the stiff egg whites.
- Heat up a griddle or skillet over medium heat. You don't want it to be too hot where the outsides of the pancake become too browned before the inside is fully cooked through. Add a pat of butter to the skillet and then scoop about ⅓ cup of pancake batter onto the skillet. You can use ¼ cup, ⅓ cup, or ½ cup measuring cups depending on how large you want your pancakes to be.
- Serve with butter, maple syrup, fresh berries, and whipped cream.
If you love pancakes, here are some other favorite pancake recipes:
GOLDIE'S BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
HEALTHY BANANA OATMEAL PANCAKES
SWEET CREAM RICOTTA PANCAKES
COTTAGE CHEESE PANCAKES
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The Best Pancake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large Eggs (separated)
- 1 ½ cups Buttermilk
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 4 Tablespoons Butter (melted)
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- Butter (for griddle or skillet)
Instructions
- Heat skillet over medium heat. In a mixing bowl, whip egg WHITES until stiff peaks form.
- In another mixing bowl, add egg yolks, buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Slowly drizzle in melted butter and stir.
- Fold in sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Carefully fold in egg whites and stir just until mixed together.
- Place a pat of butter onto skillet or griddle. Use a ¼, ⅓, or ½ measuring cup depending on how large you want your pancakes. Cook for approximately 2 minutes per side. Watch for bubbles to form on the top of the pancake and for it to turn a light golden color.
- Serve warm with extra butter, maple syrup, fresh berries, and homemade whipped cream.
Carrie Siebert
Fantastic pancakes! Light, fluffy and taste great!
Angie T
I made it this morning for breakfast and it is the best pancake I ever had. It is soft, fluffy and taste so good!!! It melts in your mouth! Thank you so much for this recipe.
Ann
YUM!! I make these for breakfast on Sunday's with buttermilk syrup and they never dissapoint 🙂
Mark M
I have been making this recipe for some time now and they are fantastically received by my family. Our all time favorite. We have some friends that need gluten free and I recently tried replacing the flour with gluten free all purpose flour with notvgreat results. Do you have any advice to get better results gluten free?
Crabby
Delicious!,, I try new pancake recipes all the time, and these are the best! Love the taste and texture. Thank you!,
Judy Ellis
I never leave a comment on recipes but these pancakes are great! I made these today and my entire family couldn't stop eating them and raving about them. I will be making these on a regular rotation. Thank you for all your great recipes.
Joanne Vasquez
Can you use wheat flour will it still be fluffy
Donna A Pollock
What delicious pancakes these are. I have never used sour cream in mine before, but they are so good. We love pancakes at our house as well. I will be using this recipe from now on. Thank you so much for sharing.
We also love your chocolate cake recipe. OMG it makes the very best cake ever.
Kate Parker
Amazing! We are a pancake family and these were definitely the best we’ve ever had! I didn’t have buttermilk on hand so I did the vinegar/milk mix and they turned out amazing. Also added some fresh blueberries on a couple and they were unbelievable. Couldn’t recommend highly enough!
Kevin Courtright
These are really good! I followed the recipe as-is, and am very pleased. I found MED heat on my stove was a bit much, so I went with MED-LOW and had great results.
Nicole
I noticed this recipe as I was following your French bread recipe. I tried it this morning for my kids. My daughter who doesn’t really like pancakes tried them and loved them. She said they were way better than a restaurant. I did tweak a little for what I had on hand—vinegar added to milk to sub for buttermilk and vanilla yogurt for sour cream. I left out the vanilla, and only used 2 TB of butter. Good recipe! Thank you.
Elizabeth
Meant to rate as 5 stars
Elizabeth
Made these tonight. Best homemade pancakes! The texture and height were perfect. Would never make any other pancake recipe again!
Christy Kidd
I NEVER leave comments on recipes, but I just could not pass this one up! This pancake recipe is complete perfection! I am IN LOVE with it! My 1 year old son is also a huge fan! I am currently on WW, so I leave out the maple syrup which makes these bad boys ZERO points. I just had to say thank you for creating this masterpiece and I look forward to trying more of your recipes! This morning I added blueberries to the batter and it was absolutely fabulous!
AshleighS
I’ve gotta try these! My favorite ones actually have ricotta cheese in them, so I imagine the sour cream will do something pretty similar to the ricotta cheese. ????????????????????
Heather
Ah ha, sour cream! My favorite waffle recipe has sour cream but I never made to connection to pancakes. Thanks!