This chocolate vegan sourdough pancakes recipe is very easy to make and delicious to eat. The best thing is that you can play around with the recipe depending on what you currently have in your kitchen cupboard.
I remember when we didn’t have a lot of money, we used to make pancakes with just water, baking soda, sugar and flour – a perfect vegan & cheap version of the traditional pancake recipe.
I’ve given you two different options on how to add chocolate to this recipe. If you like you can also leave it out.
Why make this recipe?
- Quick and easy recipe to use up your discarded sourdough starter
- Plant based & suitable for vegan diets (or if you don’t have a spare egg to use)
- Great base recipe for different options (different toppings, flour, chocolate)
My top tips on making this recipe successfully the first time round
- This recipe is based on the assumption that your sourdough starter is 50% water and 50% flour. The chances are, however, that that’s not the case, so you might need to adjust the amount of water and flour depends on how runny or thick your sourdough starter is.
- Because of the above point, add about 1/2 of the flour and 1/2 water first and mix. Depending on how thick/thin your pancake batter is add more flour or water.
- The longer you leave the pancake batter to prove the lighter the pancakes are going to be.
- If you don’t have the time to leave the batter for few hours, just add extra 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (depending on how active or not active your sourdough starter is)
Sourdough Bread Baking Resources
- How to make your own sourdough starter >>
- What to do with discarded sourdough starter >>
- Is sourdough easier to digest ? >>
Ingredients & Possible Substitutions
Sourdough starter
The whole point of making these pancakes is to use up a discarded sourdough starter, which is normally thrown away. I mean, that’s what most baking books tell you to do, but I can never bring myself to just throw away food.
Plus, the sourdough starter is amazing activator and makes your pancakes lovely and fluffy.
With this recipe, you can use a leftover sourdough starter (unfed sourdough starter) or an active one, if you want. The only difference is going to be the lightness and fluffiness of your pancakes – the more your sourdough starter is active, the more your pancakes rise.
But, since this recipe is intended for your leftover sourdough starter (the bit that you normally discard), I always use an unfed sourdough starter with this recipe.
Depending on how thick or runny your sourdough starter is, you might need to adjust the amount of water and flour.
Flour
I use any kind of flour I have at hand, but this recipe works great with wholemeal plain flours. I don’t use flours high in gluten as this would gives us a tough texture.
Anything that’s low in gluten or cake flour is fine. The use of the flour will also depend on the flour in your sourdough starter and what texture you want to achieve. For example
Wholemeal sourdough starter flour + plain (cake/all purpose) flour = lighter wholemeal pancakes
Wholemeal sourdough starter flour + wholemeal plain flour = wholemeal pancakes
Strong white bread flour sourdough starter + plain (cake/ all purpose) flour = light white flour pancakes
Strong white bread flour sourdough starter + rye flour & plain flour = lighter wholemeal pancakes
Strong white bread flour sourdough starter + buckwheat flour = lighter wholemeal flour pancakes with low gluten
Milk
To make this recipe suitable for vegan diets, use non – dairy milk almond, soy, coconut, oats milk, water.
Alternatively use any kind of milk, watered down yoghurt or water.
Sugar
I’ve used very little sugar with this recipe as I don’t like to add too much in (you can always add more toppings on the top). You can use any king of sugar or maple syrup. Leave out honey of your sugar list if you want to keep this recipe suitable for vegan diets.
Salt
I think it’s important to use salt in baking as it helps to bring all the flavours together and certainly it helps with this recipe. Any kind of salt if fine here – if you are using coarse salt dissolve it first in water.
Flaxmeal
Flaxmeal is what replaces eggs in this vegan pancake recipe. Flaxmeal helps to bind everything together, but it doesn’t change the flavour. For swaps see my notes below.
Chocolate
You have a lot of options here, you can substitute the chocolate for cocoa powder, chocolate chips, cocoa nibs (only about 1 tablespoon if using these), chopped up chocolate, carob powder or leave out the chocolate all together.
The method – Instructions
- The night before you want to make your pancakes, mix the non-dairy milk with the sourdough starter, flour, and maple syrup or sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and keep it in room temperature overnight or for a few hours (not in a fridge).
- After a few hours, your pancake batter will be bubbly, and it should have risen – the longer you leave it, the more your dough becomes bubbly.
- When you are ready to make your pancakes, mix in the salt, baking soda, flaxmeal and the chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate.
- Heat a frying pan to medium heat and add a little sunflower or coconut oil.
- Pour the sourdough pancake batter on the frying pan using about one small ladle as a measure for each pancake.
- Cook until the sides are dry and bubbles appear in the centre, then flip and continue to cook on the other side until cooked.
- Serve hot with maple syrup and fresh blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or other berries.
How else you can make this recipe?
If you have a gluten free sourdough starter you can make this recipe completely gluten free by using gluten free mix flour.
Can I scale up or down this recipe?
Yes, of course, you can easily double up this recipe or make just half of the quantity. The measurements don’t have to be exact, you just need to end up with a thick batter with just enough raising agent. If you are not sure that you got the proportions right, bake one small pancake (like from a tablespoon) taste it and adjust the flavour.
How to serve my chocolate vegan sourdough pancakes
This recipe is perfect on it’s own, but it’s also lovely with fresh fruit, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, plant- based soft cheese (and fresh fruit), chocolate spread, peanut butter spread or anything else you fancy! There are so many options.
Can this recipe be made in advance?
You can make this recipe the day before you want to make your pancakes and leave it in room temperature to bubble up. If you want to use this recipe straightaway, increase the amount of baking soda by another 1/4 of a teaspoon. You can also warm up the mixture a little (no more than 25-30 degrees) and leave in room temperature for a few hours.
You can also make the pancakes in advance and then freeze them to keep for later.
How to store pancakes if you have any leftovers
Believe me, you won’t need to worry about this, but if you really end up with some pancakes left, just wrap them up and keep them in fridge for 1-2 days and reheat them when you want to eat them. They are also O.K to freeze and will keep in the freezer (in an airtight container) for up to 3 months.
More pancakes recipes
Tips & Frequently asked questions
What are vegan pancakes made of?
You can use any cake or low gluten flour, salt, baking powder or a baking soda, a little sugar, some oil and non-dairy milk.
Do you have to use milk to make pancakes?
You can make amazing tasting pancakes without milk. The reason why you’d use milk in pancake recipe is to dissolve the flour and sugar, which means almost any liquid can be used. If you are on the budget or don’t have time to go shopping, just use tap water instead of milk.
What can you substitute for eggs in pancakes?
Applesauce
Use a quarter cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of one egg in most pancake recipes. If you like you can mix the applesauce with half a teaspoon of baking powder to give the whole pancake batter extra lift.
Banana
Just mash up 1/2 a banana in place of one egg in your pancake recipe.
Other egg replacements
Ground Flaxseeds or Chia Seeds
Commercial Egg Replacer suitable for vegan diets
Silken Tofu
Vinegar and Baking Soda mixed together.
Yoghurt or Buttermilk
Arrowroot Powder
Don’t replace the egg
The easiest thing to do is to leave the egg or egg replacement out altogether. You’ll still end up with lovely soft pancakes, and you’ll probably not even notice that there is something missing. You can add extra coconut oil into the batter to make the batter moist if you fell that the pancakes are a bit dry.
What can I use instead of milk in pancakes?
You can use any non-dairy milk, such as soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, light coconut milk. You can also replace the milk in your pancake recipe with tap water.
For a fruity pancake flavour, why not use apple juice or white grape juice instead of milk.
What type of flour should I use for my vegan sourdough pancakes?
The great thing is that you can use any plain or low gluten flour you have in your kitchen cupboard. Depending on what type of flour you use, you’ll end up with a slightly different pancake flavour, which is great for a variation. I find that wholemeal plain flour adds texture and it’s pretty healthy too.
You can also use spelt, rye, einkorn or simply plain cake flour. Ideally, you don’t want to use strong bread flour with high gluten content, as we are not prooving our pancakes and they might end up being quite rubbery if you use too much gluten in.
You can also use a mixture of different flours, which is great if you have leftovers of different flours.
More Sourdough Recipes
- Basic Sourdough Bread Recipe >>
- Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes >>
- Quick sourdough bread recipe without sourdough starter >>
Why not stay in touch…
I hope you enjoy making this recipe and if you do, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram or Facebook and add the hashtag #cocoaandheart so that I can see your post.
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Magdalena
Chocolate Sourdough Pancakes (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 1 cups of wholemeal flour cake flour or low gluten flour such as spelt
- 1 cups of non – dairy milk almond, soy, coconut, oats milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon flaxmeal
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate
To serve
- Maple syrup
- 1 cups strawberrries, blueberries or raspberries berries
Instructions
- The night before you want to make your pancakes, mix the non-dairy milk with the sourdough starter, flour, and maple syrup or sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and keep it in room temperature overnight or for a few hours (not in a fridge).
- After a few hours, your pancake batter will be bubbly, and it should have risen – the longer you leave it, the more your dough becomes bubbly.
- When you are ready to make your pancakes, mix in the salt, baking soda, flaxmeal and the chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate.
- Heat a frying pan to medium heat and add a little sunflower or coconut oil.
- Pour the sourdough pancake batter on the frying pan using about one small ladle as a measure for each pancake.
- Cook until the sides are dry and bubbles appear in the centre, then flip and continue to cook on the other side until cooked.
- Serve hot with maple syrup and fresh blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or other berries.
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