A Tale of Two Sourdoughs

My mother tells a story about how before I was born her and my Grandpa Russ had a sourdough pancake competition. The feed was for a family of visiting friends from Norway, one Derit Sdensen, her husband Johan, and seven children. Mom thought she had the competition nailed down; she taught cooking classes, had gone to school to learn technique, and had a recipe for sourdough pancakes from a real sourdough. Her friend from Alaska, Helen Laurent, had a sourdough starter that had traveled over the Chilkoot Pass in '98 (1898) and had been kept going ever since. Helen was renowned in Juneau for her generosity with her sourdough pancake recipe, and her sourdough starter. She gave samples of the historical Alaskan starter she had acquired to anyone who expressed interest and kept her starter going through half a century. Clearly her pancake recipe would trump anything my grandfather would come up with.

I learned this evening when asking my mom about this sourdough standoff, that my grandparents had taken a sourdough class. My mother has their text/cook book from this class and I am very eager to get my hands on it. However, had Mom known this at the time of the pancake challenge, I would hope she would have been a little more wary. You see, my Grandpa Russ spared neither time, nor sleep, for quality. On the morning of the sourdough pancake challenge he woke up 3 hours before cooking time to get his batter bubbling away. He harnessed the yeast's natural production of CO2 to add lift and fluffiness to his pancakes. My mother woke up at cooking time and added baking soda (a base), to sourdough (acidic) and attained pancake fluffiness through a version of the classic baking soda/vinegar volcano that every kid sees in grade school. The real difference here is that adding baking soda to sourdough reduces the sourness as the acid in the dough is what gives it that distinctive sourdough flavor. In an unsurprising turn of events, my grandpa, with his 3 hour head start, unanimously won the sourdough compitition judged by the family of Derit Sdensen.

So goes one of the sourdough folktales of my family. Today, I most frequently make Helen Laurent's sourdough pancake recipe--modified by Mom to use less of all things bad for you-but still delicious. I have made my grandpa's recipe, but getting up that far before hand for pancakes really is a pain. Usually pancakes are a weekend thing, and three extra hours of sleep on the weekend is much appreciated. Also, I am not sure I like my pancakes quite that sour. I am going to give his recipe a try again this weekend, but my previous experience has been that to enjoy them, you need to really love sourdough and be willing to sacrifice some sleep for some really tasty pancakes.

When I make pancakes, I make Helen Laurent's recipe. I learned recently that Helen Laurent has recently passed away, and Sept. 10th 2010 they are holding a celebration of her life in Juneau/Douglas, Alaska. I can't think of a better celebration of her life than to make the pancakes she so generously fed people, or to disseminate the knowledge about sourdough that she so graciously maintained. My dad says that to truly make Helen Laurent pancakes you have to have some of her historical sourdough starter. As she gave it to so many people he is pretty sure he can get me a sample, so maybe someday soon I will be able to make these sourdough pancakes using a starter with over a century of history. However, right now, I'll settle for my own measly 2 year old starter, which regardless of its youth produces tastiness.

My boyfriend, who doesn't like pancakes, loves these sourdoughs. He likes his pancakes more crepe like. Sourdough pancakes are less fluffy, and less chewy than a traditional pancake. And, they also leave you feeling much more satisfied.


For Helen Lauren Sourdough Pancakes

1. If you know you want pancakes the night before, take the starter out of your fridge and check to make certain you have enough* (defined below, this depends on how many people you are feeding) in the pot to make pancakes, if you need more add equal parts water and flour and a small (1 tsp to 1 Tbsp) of sugar product and let sit over night. Even if you do not need more starter to make the pancakes, letting your yeast warm up to room temperature, reactivate, and start fermenting again. This will improve the taste of your pancakes in the morning. Place the starter on the counter for the night.

2. If you suddenly decide in the morning that you want pancakes don't worry. Tasty sourdough pancakes are still just a few moments away. Take the stater out of the fridge and check to see if you have enough*, if you do not have enough add 1 part flour and 1 part water until you do have enough and wait an hour (to help this process you could also put your sourdough in a warm place). If your always feeding a crowd just make a habit of keeping a larger quantity of starter on hand.

*Enough sourdough starter depends entirely on how many people you are feeding and how hungry those people are. Usually for myself and my boyfriend if I make a standard recipe that calls for 1 cup of sourdough starter, and we have enough leftovers to feed ourselves breakfast at least once again, However, if I am feeding myself and my sister there will be no left overs, and if it is my brother I will make two cups just to make sure. People who do not have sourdough pancakes frequently, or have never had them before, may eat A LOT of them. When I haven't made them for a while I do the same thing. There is something about them that just tastes so good, and you want to eat far more than you actually need. I always try to keep at least 2 1/2 cups of starter in the fridge for these occurrences, and if I know I am going to be feeding a crowd I get it out, add some flour and water, and let it start doing its thing the night before.

The Basic Recipe (other than the sourdough I eyeball most of these)

1 cup sourdough starter

add

1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Oil (any type works I've used olive, sunflower, safflower, vegetable, melted butter...) add more oil if you want richer pancakes, I believe Helen's original recipe called for at least 2 Tbsp. You can cut it back to reduce fat or increase it as you like. The oil does not really effect flavor all that much, the key to sourdough flavor is the starter.

After you've decided how much oil and salt you're adding... Add

1 egg and mix until combined

(Optional: to increase fluffiness, separate the egg, add the yolk to the batter and mix, and whip the egg white to peaks and reserve)

When ready to cook, add

1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (do not add immediately, mix your baking soda with a bit (2 Tbsp) water and set aside until ready to cook your pancakes). When your griddle is hot, stir your soda water mixture and add to pancake batter. Stir. If you separated your egg whites and whipped, add them in at this time by folding into the pancake batter. Adding the baking soda/ water mix will start the pancake batter CO2 reaction as the acid in the sourdough reacts with the base in the soda, this is what is happening any time you add baking soda or powder to a recipe. Once you have added the soda start cooking immediately. The more soda you add the fluffier your pancakes will be. The less soda you add the more sour they will be. You have to find the optimal fluffy/sour equilibrium for yourself. Everyone has different tastes and preferences.

For cooking the pancakes add 1/3 a cup to a hot skillet, turn the temp to medium low, wait unti bubbles are forming in the middle of the pancake, flip, and let it cook for 1 min on the other side.
At this point for me, I know this recipe by heart, and eyeball the ingredients. You have fewer dishes to do if you don't measure everything! The most important part is to make sure you mix the baking soda with a bit of water, and wait to add it in until just before you start cooking. All of your pancakes will be delicious, but you will notice that the ones cooked just a couple minutes after you added the soda have the best flavor and the lightest texture. Every pancake you cook from this recipe will be better than Bisquick, both in terms of nutrition and in terms of taste. If your not a sourdough convert, give me a call, and if your in town, I'll make you breakfast ;)


Now, if you really like the sour of sourdough, you should consider making my Grandpa's pancakes. In these, you do not use the baking soda reaction to help give your pancake lift and reduce the sour flavor. For fluffiness you rely solely on egg whites and the natural fermentation reaction.

Step one. Start the night before, or get up at least 3 hours before you plan on cooking the pancakes.

Step 2. Mix

1 cup starter
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
1 T wheat germ or bran or both (optional, my grandpa Russ loved adding these to all of his pancakes and it is quite tasty, but if you do not have them on hand do not worry)

Step 3. Let this sit for at least 3 hours

Step 4. separate 1 egg

Step 5. Mix with batter

1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk

Step 6. Whip egg white to stiff peak

Step 7. Make sure griddle is hot, fold egg white into batter and cook pancakes.


Usually when I am cooking for a crowd I mix up a lot of sourdough mix at once, however, if cooking by the baking soda method it is probably best to mix it up 1 cup at a time, cook, and then repeat. At this point I know the Helen Laurent sourdough pancake recipe by heart and to me it is absolutely easier than Bisquick. It does take getting used to the fact that you need to mix the baking soda in water and then cook immediately, but for the effort, the result is well worth it. These pancakes take well to additions, my family likes blueberries added during cooking. Personally, I am a fan of chocolate chips. There is nothing better than a chocolate chip sourdough pancake on a Sunday morning. For either Blueberries or Chocolate Chips, just add them sprinkled over the top of the pancake right after you have put it on the griddle or in the frying pan.

I sincerely hope that everyone who reads this has a chance to try sourdough pancakes, if you live in the area or happen to be visiting Indianapolis, let me know, I am always on the look for new sourdough converts.