A few days ago, I shared the very first recipe on this blog: homemade butter.
It felt like the perfect place to begin. Something simple, delicious and surprisingly inexpensive to make. But the lovely thing about making butter at home is that the story does not end with the butter itself.
Once the butter has formed, another ingredient remains in the bowl: buttermilk.
And rather than letting it go to waste, we are going to turn it into something the whole family can enjoy—a generous stack of warm, fluffy pancakes.
What is buttermilk?
There is something almost magical about making butter at home.
You begin with just one ingredient—a carton of heavy cream—and, within a few minutes, it separates into two entirely different things. There is the butter, of course, but also the pale, milky liquid left behind at the bottom of the bowl.
That liquid is buttermilk.
For a long time, I thought buttermilk was a complicated ingredient that had to be bought especially for certain recipes. In reality, traditional buttermilk is simply the natural by-product of making butter. As the fat in the cream gathers together to form butter, the lighter liquid separates from it.
And that is exactly what I love about making things this way.
Homemade butter is not only about making butter. It is also a small return to an older, simpler and more thoughtful way of cooking—one in which every ingredient has a purpose and very little is wasted.
The butter can be spread over warm toast, stirred into mashed potatoes or melted over vegetables. The buttermilk can become the beginning of something else entirely.
You can use it in pancakes, muffins, quick breads, savoury biscuits or even as part of a marinade to help tenderize chicken. It gives baked goods a wonderfully soft texture and adds a gentle richness that makes even the simplest recipe feel comforting.
It is a quiet, unassuming ingredient.
But sometimes, it is these small leftovers that remind us just how generous simple cooking can be.
Homemade buttermilk pancakes
Equipment
- Two large mixing bowls
- A whisk
- Measuring cups and spoons
- A kitchen scale, if measuring the flour by weight
- A ladle or ¼-cup measuring cup
- A large skillet or griddle
- A spatula
- A small bowl or saucepan for melting the butter
- A cooling rack or serving plate
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp teaspoon salt
- 1¾ cups homemade buttermilk
- ½ cup sour cream
- 5 tbsp tablespoons butter melted
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- A little butter or neutral oil for the pan
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the buttermilk, sour cream, melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla.
- Heat a lightly buttered or oiled skillet over medium heat. Pour about ¼ cup (60 ml) of batter into the pan for each pancake.
- Cook until small bubbles begin to appear on the surface and the underside is golden. Flip with a spatula and cook the second side until golden and cooked through.
- Repeat with the remaining batter, adding a little more butter to the pan when needed.
Notes
For the next recipe, we will add one more homemade touch to this comforting breakfast: a quick and wholesome strawberry chia jam.
See you next time!
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @thesmallplenty on Instagram and hashtag it @thesmallplenty.