Have you ever tried buttermilk pancakes? Pancakes are a breakfast staple in America. I grew up eating them with my family every weekend, sometimes adding chocolate chips, bananas, or blueberries, sometimes serving them topped with peanut butter, sometimes cooking them in the shape of Mickey Mouse. When I was little, we used a simple, ready-made mix (just add water!), but then a friend shared their grandma’s buttermilk pancake recipe that completely changed my life, and my view of what pancakes could be. After making them countless times, I’ve tweaked and refined the recipe a bit. Now, I can confidently say that these are the fluffiest, best buttermilk pancakes you’ll ever eat. I hope they bring you as much joy as they bring me!
Buttermilk Substitutes – What To Use Instead
Not all American pancakes are created equal. The key ingredient here is buttermilk – don’t just use regular milk, it doesn’t taste the same! Buttermilk goes by many different names around the world. In Denmark, use “kærnemælk.” In Norway, use “skumma kulturmelk.” In France, use “lait ribot.” In Italy, use “latticello.” (And if you can’t find any at your local grocery store, you can always make your own buttermilk substitution at home. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar (or lemon juice) per cup of milk. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, until the milk begins to curdle.) I prefer using a cast-iron skillet when making these pancakes (I love the buttery, crispy edge it gives them), but any skillet will do.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (390 g) flour
- 2 ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 liter of buttermilk
- 3 eggs
- 75 g butter (melted)
Instructions
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Mix together.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Grease the skillet with a good amount of butter. (Don’t be shy!)
- Ladle in ½ cup batter per pancake.
- Flip when you see bubbles form around the edges of the pancake. Continue cooking until both sides are golden brown.
- Stack ’em up! Serve with butter and maple syrup.
Notes
This is a big batch of pancake batter that will easily serve 4-6. Feel free to cut the recipe in half, or keep the batter in the fridge for a few days and make fresh pancakes every morning.
Did you try our buttermilk pancake recipe? Leave a comment below and let us know how it went, or share a photo and tag us on Instagram!
Best pancakes ever, as promised, 12 points out of ten, thank you Caitlin 😀
Our pile never got higher than 1 pancake at a time 🤣 I’ll post some fotos on my FB-Page.
Love this! That’s the way to do it. 😀
Just made these this morning. Brilliant.
A third was very adequate for two people, but sooooo fluffy and moist.
Actually the only American style pancakes we’ve ever enjoyed. Thanx a lot 👍🏼
Thanks for your feedback. So happy to hear you enjoyed them as much as me! 😀
These look amazing! I am going to make them for my girlfriends 30th birthday tomorrow. One question: What does baking soda and baking powder translate to in Norwegian?
Hi Kristian. Great surprise for your girlfriend. She won’t be disappointed. Baking soda = natron, baking powder = bakepulver.
Great, thanks!
Great success at our house! Thanks for the recipe!
Glad to hear that!
By far, the best pancakes I’ve ever had – and I’ve had a few!
Thanks!
Hi,
Can one use dairy free milk (e.g. almond milk) ?
Thank you! 😊
I haven’t tried using dairy free milk, so I can’t say for sure. But let me know if you try it how it goes!
Hej you guys,
thanks for sharing this. But I was wondering, you don’t use any sugar for the batter? I always add some vanilla infused sugar (and brown butter for the skillet…).
Hey Martin. We don’t use any sugar for the batter. The only sugar is the maple syrup you drizzle on top. Lots of butter in the skillet, of course!
Kaitlin, do you use sheet flour for your pancakes?
Not sure what you mean by sheet flour, we just use regular wheat flour (all-purpose).
Kaitlin & Anders,
I made the pancakes today. They were delicious!! I have a hard time cooking pancakes, in general. The center is never cooked throughly. These were much easier to cook. What temp do you use? I was using med/hi but turned it down.
Thanks!!
Kathy (Hoya Saxa)
Oh yay!! I’m so happy to hear that. Yes, I use medium high heat – with plenty of butter in the pan so they get a nice brown buttery edge to them. 🙂 But if they’re starting to burn then definitely turn it down. I flip them once it’s cooked about 70% of the way on one side and just give it a couple minutes on the other side before serving.
Miss you, Kathy! Hopefully we can share pancakes together (and with my mom too!) sometime soon. Xoxo.
Have you tried these with any sort of gf flour. I can not eat gluten so that is my only option. I’m thinking a basic all purpose gf flour (if I can find it in Cph) would work??? I usually only use naturally gf like almond flour. Oat flour etc but I’m not sure that would be good with this recipe and I’d love to try it. Thanks 🥰
I have not tried gluten free flour, sorry! But the recipe should still work! Let me know how it is if you try it 🙂
Tried it today. Got Dove Farm gf regular white flour (not the self rising) at helsam. So glad they had it as this was my choice to try since it’s basically “clean”. Feedback: first, I ate them for both bfast and dinner 😋. Bfast with half, heated blueberries and half, pb and banana. Dinner with Brie, Manuka honey and sliced pears. I thought they were really good. BUT I used salted butter in the batter which I think was a mistake and I cut it to 1/3 of the recipe so I think the bs and bp ratio was slightly off because while they were fluffy they could have been fluffier. That could also be from the gf flour. Overall though super yummy. Will for sure make them again within the week as I have the buttermilk (not sure it’s real butter milk but the Danish kaerne maelk). I’ll for sure use sweet butter and next time I think I’ll half the recipe so the ratios are spot on. LOVE it has no sugar and is so flavorful. Thanks for the post and I look forward to my few minor tweaks. 🥞🥰
Yum, sounds great! Glad to hear that it worked with gluten free flour! And yes, I use kærnemælk when I am making them in Denmark. 🙂
Omg, definitely trying these! As a foodie and Norwegian previously living in the U.S. I’ve had my fair share of DELICIOUS American pancakes overseas, but I still haven’t managed to find the perfect recipe after moving back home. So exited to try this recipe, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Yay!! I hope you like it 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Hello! Tried this recipe today and it was so good we ate every last one and missed taking a picture! I live in Sweden and couldn’t find buttermilk or kvarnmjölk but I used filmjölk (similar to kefir) and the results were delightful. Thanks for the recipe! This will surely become our pancake go-to.
So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the nice message. 🙂 Happy pancake eating!