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Sweet potato sourdough pancakes could easily become a staple around here.
My daughter loved them, although I’m honestly not surprised. Sweet potato slathered with organic raw butter was one of her favorite first foods.
Here, the sweet potato adds a natural sweet earthiness and deep flavor to the sourdough. It makes these pancakes more tender and delicate than the chewy sourdough you’re probably accustomed to.
Not to mention they are a striking orange color when cooked!
I served these on New Year’s Day this year for our family brunch with pastured butter, organic maple syrup, and fresh ground cinnamon and nutmeg. They really started this year off wonderfully! I hope you’ll give them a try.
Sweet Potato Sourdough Pancakes
Yield:
8 servings
Prep Time:
30 minutes
Cook Time:
1 hour 30 minutes
Fermenting Time:
12 hours
Total Time:
14 hours
Beautiful tender pancakes with an earthy sweet potato flavor. Traditionally fermented for easy digestion.
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato (around 1 1/4 pounds, I like the Garnet variety for their color)
- 280 grams (2 cups) organic all-purpose flour
- 335 grams (1 1/2 cups) filtered water
- 75 grams (1/2 cup) sourdough starter
- 20 grams (2 tablespoons) coconut sugar
- 2 grams (1/4 teaspoon) salt
- 2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) vanilla
- 245 grams (1 cup) whole milk
- 56 grams (1/4 cup) butter, melted
- 3 pastured eggs
Instructions
- The night before, roast the sweet potato at 350°F for 1 hour or until fork tender. Also start your sourdough by combining the flour, starter, and water in a ceramic bowl big enough for expansion. The pancake starter should be very thick. Cover the bowl and let it sit on the counter overnight. Let the sweet potato cool and refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning check on your starter. It should be bubbly and happy. Peel and mash the sweet potato. I recommend cutting it in thin coins first to avoid any strings from the fibers that run the length of the potato. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for the following steps, but a big bowl and some elbow grease will work just as well.
- Beat the sweet potato until it's smooth. Add the coconut sugar, salt, and vanilla and beat again. Then add the milk, and melted butter slowly while stirring. When this mixture is fully combined add the eggs one at a time and beat them in well. Once the eggs are incorporated stir in the bubbling sourdough starter just until incorporated. Do not over-mix. Let this batter stand at room temp for 1 hour.
- Preheat a seasoned griddle over medium-high heat. Once the griddle is just hot enough to smoke, turn it down to medium and start cooking the pancakes. Cook each cake until golden brown on both sides. Serve with any of the following: pastured butter, maple syrup, raw honey, apple butter, ground cinnamon, and/or nutmeg!
Want To Learn Everything About Sourdough?
Start with this free guide:
Dana
Monday 3rd of March 2025
I accidentally used discard instead of active starter. Now my batter is super runny and doesn't form pancakes. Yikes. Is it salvageable? What do I add if so? Thank you so much!
Butter For All
Friday 21st of March 2025
Hi Dana,
I think I helped you on Instagram, if you're the same person. But I'll share again here for everyone else. If your batter is really runny and you are afraid it's not going to be very active because maybe you're sourdough starter wasn't very active to begin with you can always use it to make crepes. I think sweet potato Crepes would be excellent!
If your sourdough starter is active you can always adjust with a little more flour, and a few hours of fermentation to thicken the recipe.
Rachel
Tuesday 16th of April 2024
I would like to make these right away, can I used discard instead and add baking powder?
Butter For All
Thursday 18th of April 2024
Hi Rachel,
I'm so sorry if you've already moved on. I definitely think that would work. You could also mix your batter with the sweet potato and some fresh flour and then let it ferment for a few hours until it has revived and is bubbly.
Melody Crow
Monday 10th of January 2022
These pancakes were so delicious! I had Halloween pumpkin/squash puree in ice cube trays in my freezer and improvised a little, but it worked perfectly! I melted 4 cubes with the butter and 1/2 cup of the water (I only used 1 cup for the overnight soak of starter with whole ground grains). I added the rest of the ingredients and eggs and then only 1/2 cup milk, then gradually mixed in the sourdough. They were thin, almost as a crepe. I think my puree was watery. But everyone loved them. Thank you!
Butter For All
Thursday 20th of January 2022
Hi Melody,
Thanks so much for the nice feedback and your recipe notes! I so happy to hear everyone loved them! Thank YOU :)
Raina J Gates
Monday 16th of August 2021
I am in the the process of making these right now, looking forward to trying these, and I don't mean to pick apart your recipe, but the grams are off- 118g of water was not enough to get it started, it was a ball of dough. Had to use the cup measurement. Can't speak for the butter mentioned in someone else's comment b/c I haven't gotten to that point in the recipe yet. Also, in the directions you write to add cream, but no cream is listed in the ingredients. It would be much appreciated if you could reply within 5 hours before I need to finish the recipe.
Raina J Gates
Monday 16th of August 2021
@Butter For All, Thank you so much for your fast reply! Excited for Nashville Hot Chicken with your pancake recipe!
Butter For All
Monday 16th of August 2021
Hi Raina!
I really appreciate you catching those errors. I have fixed the recipe instructions, removed the call for cream, and recalculated the grams measurement. 118g is only half a cup so when I updated this older recipe from cups to grams I must have missed that. My apologies! I do hope them come out beautifully!
Lei
Monday 11th of January 2021
Is it 1/4 of a cup of butter? Also the grams seem off
Lei
Wednesday 13th of January 2021
@Butter For All, 1 1/2c of water is not 118g also 1/2 of starter has got to be more than 75g, right? I didn’t want to get my measuring cups dirty so I was looking at the grams but got a little confused. Anyway I made the pancakes, with the cups, and the flavor was great!
Butter For All
Monday 11th of January 2021
Hi Lei,
It is 1/4 cup butter or (56g). I'm not sure which grams you are referring to. The cups measurements are always approximate. So if you have the ability to measure with grams that will give you the most consistent results with my recipes.
Happy Baking,
Courtney