Make Ahead
Whole-Grain Brown Butter Overnight Pancakes
- Prep time 12 hours 15 minutes
- Cook time 10 minutes
- makes around 16 pancakes
Author Notes
These pancakes are not the tall, pale stacks of your diner childhood memories, destined to send you right back to bed after devouring them. While they have a place in my heart, they aren’t what I crave on a weekend morning most of the time. These pancakes are more robust, while still quite tender—they have a little more gusto, with whole grains, and nuttiness from browned butter. The best part is they are happiest when the batter is mixed and held overnight in the fridge and the egg whites are added last minute in the morning. The egg white addition is a technique from Dana Velden and her Lofty Buttermilk Pancakes, which have been a hit on our site for some time now.
The whole wheat and cornmeal swell in their time spent overnight with the buttermilk, keeping the resulting texture lighter than other whole wheat pancakes. The buttermilk also lends a wonderful, classic flavor, and imparts tenderness as well.
I recommend cooking these in some neutral oil in your favorite cast iron pan for maximum crisped edges. While there are more whole grains in here than your everyday pancake, these certainly aren't for someone looking for a more “virtuous pancake.” Pack in sliced fruit or berries while they are on the griddle or slather hot off the pan with raspberry jam, salted butter, or classic maple syrup (the good stuff) for the icing on the cake—the pancake that is.
—Anna Billingskog
Test Kitchen Notes
Adapted from Dana Velden’s Lofty Buttermilk Pancakes.
—The Editors
Ingredients
-
8 tablespoons
unsalted butter
-
2
eggs, separated
-
2 cups
buttermilk
-
1 cup
(100 grams) whole wheat flour
-
1/2 cup
(60 grams) all-purpose flour
-
1/2 cup
(75 grams) cornmeal
-
1/2 teaspoon
salt
-
2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
-
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
-
1 teaspoon
baking powder
-
Neutral oil for frying
-
Maple syrup, butter, and/or fruit or jam of your choice, for serving
Directions
- Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat until toasted and brown, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Separate the yolks and whites from the eggs, reserving the whites and setting them aside in the fridge until morning (or until you plan to finish this pancake batter).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg yolks, and slightly cooled brown butter. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients and then gently fold them into the buttermilk mixture. Be careful not to overmix.
- Cover the batter and let it rest overnight in the refrigerator to let the grains soak and hydrate. In the morning, remove the batter from the fridge, give the egg whites a quick stir to blend and add them into the batter, folding just until you no longer see streaks of egg white.
- Warm a well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat. (If you don't have one, a nonstick works great here as well.) Once the pan is hot, about 30 seconds, add about a teaspoon of neutral oil and ¼ cup of batter to the pan (about the measure of a large soup spoon), spacing the pancakes about 2 inches apart from one another.
- Lower the heat to medium low—low heat is your friend here—and wait for bubbles to appear on the surface, about 2-3 minutes. Using a thin metal spatula, peek under the pancake to see that it's a nice golden brown. If it is, with some confidence, flip the pancake to the other side and continue cooking about 2 minutes further, till both sides are a nice golden brown and the center of the pancake springs back when you touch it.
- These pancakes are best served warm straight out of the skillet and topped with maple syrup and soft butter (or fruit or jam, if that’s your jam). If you plan to eat them in a more sit-down style, heat your oven before you begin frying the pancakes to 300°F/149°C and set a sheet tray with a cooling rack inside of it in the middle rack of the oven. As the pancakes come off the skillet, set them in the warm oven to hold until all are fried off and you are ready to sit down. These pancakes will reheat moderately well in a toaster oven for any leftovers the next day, for a quick- walking-out-the-door-style breakfast for anyone, large or small, on the go.
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