Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe (2024)

By Alison Roman

Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe (1)

Total Time
10 minutes
Rating
5(11,728)
Notes
Read community notes

Pancakes are the hero of the breakfast table, and their very taste can even be described as “deeply breakfasty”: eggy, salty, just this side of sweet. A little indulgent and yet still somehow appropriate first thing in the morning, those fluffy stacks with crisped edges, dripping with maple syrup, are everything you want, exactly when you want them. Here is how to get to them right every time, whether it's a lazy Sunday morning or a hurried weekday.

Learn: How to Make Pancakes

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 2cups all-purpose flour
  • 3tablespoons sugar
  • teaspoons baking powder
  • teaspoons baking soda
  • teaspoons kosher salt
  • cups buttermilk
  • 2large eggs
  • 3tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • Vegetable, canola or coconut oil for the pan

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Make the recipe with us

  1. Step

    1

    Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt together in a bowl. Using the whisk, make a well in the center. Pour the buttermilk into the well and crack eggs into buttermilk. Pour the melted butter into the mixture. Starting in the center, whisk everything together, moving towards the outside of the bowl, until all ingredients are incorporated. Do not overbeat (lumps are fine). The batter can be refrigerated for up to one hour.

  2. Step

    2

    Heat a large nonstick griddle or skillet, preferably cast-iron, over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet. Turn heat up to medium–low and using a measuring cup, ladle ⅓ cup batter into the skillet. If you are using a large skillet or a griddle, repeat once or twice, taking care not to crowd the cooking surface.

  3. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, about 2 to 4 minutes. Cook until the other sides are lightly browned. Remove pancakes to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet, and keep in heated oven until all the batter is cooked and you are ready to serve.

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

J. Scott Wilson

As with any buttermilk batter recipe, this works best if you let the batter sit at room temperature for about a half-hour. The buttermilk will work its magic and thicken the batter, making for super-fluffy pancakes. By cooking immediately, you're completely defeating the purpose of using the buttermilk.

MMS

Any reason why the eggs aren't lightly beaten before adding to pancake mixture? I thought over mixing was to be avoided, and it seems that mixing whole unbeaten eggs would risk this. Thoughts from the pancake experts?

Stu

A generous teaspoon of Vanilla extract makes a big difference in my experience (or 1-inch+ scraped vanilla bean).

Jean

This is my new go to recipe. I don't make any changes, but I do find that the batter is thicker if you let it sit for about 10 minutes or so after mixing everything together. It spreads like crazy if you cook right away.

JLR

The unibowlness of this is sublime, but with volumetric measurements, it's something of a fallacy! If weighed in the bowl:

250 g APF
38 g sugar
1.5 tsp each of soda, powder and salt (even my drug-dealer scale isn't up to the task of weighing these)
600 g of buttermilk (or, as I did, about 550 g of buttermilk and 50 g milk)
2 eggs
45 g butter, melted in the frying pan or on the griddle

The butter's still on my hands as I type this —delicious!

Greg

This is my "go-to" Saturday morning pancake recipe. I kick it up with two teaspoons of vanilla in the batter.When I die, I want to be buried in a vat filled with Grey Goose vodka and the NYT buttermilk pancake batter.

cw

325? Some if my pancakes were more like cookies by the end. 200 degrees is plenty to keep pancakes warm. (And heat some plates to serve!)

Jane

I regularly cook in both the US and the UK, and I have made these pancakes several times in each place. In my experience, buttermilk can vary a lot in thickness. The buttermilk I purchase in the US is consistently thinner than in the UK. Reading the notes of other cooks, it appears that the thickness varies even within the US, since some cooks comment on the extreme thinness of the batter, while others find the opposite. Start with 1/4 to 1/2 c. less buttermilk, adjusting as necessary.

sarnor

I always beat the eggs and combine with the melted butter and buttermilk then add to the dry ingredients. If you read the "How to Make Pancakes" article cited above, the reason they are added directly to the dry ingredients is so there is one less bowl to clean.

Katie

These didn't turn out right for me--too thin and liquidy. I feel fairly certain that was due to an excess of milk. Looking at other pancake recipes I regularly use, the quantity of flour and milk is the same, but here there's a 1/2 cup more of buttermilk. If I try these again I'd reduce the milk.

Nuschler

Sorry, but as an MD I had to laugh. You don’t want butter, but you recommend “generous amount” of coconut oil?

Coconut oil is 92% saturated fat! We use fresh coconut oil right of husks for laxatives here in Hawai’i.

Stan

I have tried many recipes for pancakes, including some others from NY Times Cooking. This is by far the best-fluffy and full of flavor. I made the recipe for 2 people and added blueberries and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Beautiful and delicious.

Dave Smucker

I fix a lot of pancakes - once a week breakfast for high school boys at church and Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper too. Want better lighter pancakes - change the flour. Use unbleached self-rising biscuit flour, not all purpose. You want soft wheat flour, not hard wheat flour. Want to make them really bad use bread flour. We use 10 percent sugar, and lots of butter. (That is about 160 pancakes each Thursday morning, and 1600 for Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper).

rose

Excellent recipe. My go-to for pancakes has always been the one in Joy of Cooking, which requires you to separate the whites from the egg yokes and then make an almost-meringue, before folding everything back into the batter. The result was unfailingly fluffy cakes. Was VERY skeptical about this method, but the result were amazing. This method is so much quicker, since there's no need to beat the egg whites.

Jen

I used yogurt for some of the buttermilk, and the pancakes were fantastic.Great with orange zest, marmalade and vanilla in the batter.

Kathy

Instead of butter milk, I use 1/2 cup cottage cheese, I cup yogurt, 1 cup milk. I also add either blueberries or corn. Rich flavor and more protein

AR

I didn't have buttermilk on hand so I substituted a mix of whole milk yogurt and water (1.75 cups yogurt, 0.75 cups water). Worked perfectly.

Hedda

I was skeptical about the idea that "lumps are fine," but they were.

Annie W

Sublime pancake experience. Fluffy, light, full of comforting flavor. I only add 2 cups buttermilk to make them extra thick. Yum.

gkm

One cup of einkorn flour and chia seeds for egg substitutes led to very flat pancakes.

Sarah

Best looking pancakes I’ve ever made

M.Pook

Completely forgot the sugar when making these and did not notice the difference (the maple syrup more than compensates).

Karen

I mix dry & wet in separate bowls, then combine. I also add 1 scant tablespoon vanilla extract. Let batter rest at least 10 minutes for cooking.

Aisha

Added lemon zest and ground cardamom for flavor. Subbed buttermilk for a mixture of the sour cream, yogurt and milk in the fridge. So good.

paula

Beat eggs before addingLet batter set for at least 30 minutes for buttermilk to work it’s magic

Steve R

I made the recipe as is and wow. I will be using the griddle on my stove more often. The recipe makes 12 large pancakes.

CCS

For fluffier, less dense pancakes (also to reduce the possibility of developing too much gluten when mixing), try 1.5 cups AP Flour and 1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used King Arthur's for the gluten free flour)! I also beat the eggs with 1 cup of buttermilk before adding this mixture + 1 more cup of buttermilk to the batter. I only had reduced fat buttermilk on hand. It worked well! Thank you for this recipe. It is a winner!

Lucy

This recipe uses the best I have tried. However I add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract with the wet ingredients

melissa

Holy grail recipe for many years. Out of town a few necessary tweaks floored me: fake buttermilk (vinegar/milk); nonstick frying pan; no oil/butter; electric range. They cooked insanely quickly with the most beautifully even and smooth tops and bottoms. No splotchiness, uncertainty, extra flipping, extra calories. Back home I’ll be back to buttermilk/gas range but nonstick pan is coming out for for sure. May occasionally use coconut oil for flavor/crispness but I’m a convert to the tenderness.

Jay

Such a perfect pancake for when I picture a griddle-prepared-cake-in-a-diner-setting. As others mentioned, I agree with, and made a few additional of my own, tweaks below:-letting batter set at room temperature, which I did while preheating my cast iron (about 10-15 minutes) -mixing egg before adding (I just generally think that’s a useful habit to have for most cooking/baking) -adding half a pint of chopped strawberries and topping with strawberry jam was 1000x worth it

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Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe (2024)

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