Sourdough Pikelets

Sourdough pikelets are the easiest and tastiest way to use up that leftover sourdough starter discard. They are even easier to make than my sourdough pancakes and take less than 5 minutes to make. I like to add a few chopped chives to my pikelets and have them for breakfast!

I know people don't care much about family history and recipes but this is truly the first family recipe I have shared here on Sugar Geek Show so darn it, I'm going to share a little bit about why I love pikelets!

Pikelets are a part of my childhood. I had never even had a pancake until I was in my teens. My dad is from New Zealand, and if you're from New Zealand, this is your version of the Betty Crocker cookbook. The Edmonds Cookery Book. Everything we made pretty much originated from this book. This is the actual cookbook my Mom and Dad used. I never thought to even ask my Dad if he still had it because he isn't much of a baker or a cook and my Mom has long since passed away.

I recently invited him over to test out some sourdough bread, sourdough focaccia, and a sweeter lemon blueberry sourdough focaccia I was making. He has a gluten intolerance and I wondered if he could actually eat sourdough bread because I had read that people with an intolerance can actually eat it with no pain. Hop on over to my sourdough bread recipe to see how that went!

As I was making the bread, I decided to make some pikelets out of the discard and it brought back all my memories of eating them as a kid. I quickly called my Dad and asked him if he still had that old cookbook and what do you know... he did. Now, these sourdough pikelets are not exactly like the ones I had growing up, these are made from discard while the ones I had growing up were made with fresh flour and baking powder. But the texture is almost identical and quite delicious! Ok, that's my schpeel about pikelets 😀

What Is A Pikelet?

A pikelet is similar to a pancake but pancakes are made with a thinner batter and are usually eaten at breakfast. Pikelets are made with a thicker batter and can be eaten at any time of the day.

I often like to add savory ingredients to my pikelets, such as chives, cheese, bacon, or even roasted corn! Mmmmmm so good.

A pikelet is actually the same thing as a crumpet, except it is not cooked in a metal ring. Pikelets are commonly referred to as the poor people's crumpet because not everyone could afford a metal ring to bake in!

If you love a sourdough breakfast bread, my sourdough English muffins are the proper bread version with all the same nooks and crannies.

Sourdough Pikelet Ingredients

You only need a few ingredients to make easy sourdough pikelets from your discard. I typically have about a cup of discard leftover. If you have more or less, you can adjust these ingredients as needed. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results.

• Sourdough discard. Unfed sourdough starter straight from the fridge or counter, no need to wake it up. This is the ENTIRE base of the recipe, so use discard you'd actually want to eat (not weeks-old liquid alcohol-smelling stuff).
• Sugar. Just a teaspoon. Gives the pikelets the faint sweetness of a pancake. If you're going fully savory, leave it out (a reader asked about this, and it works fine).
• Salt. Balances the tang of the sourdough. Don't skip.
• Baking soda. This is the most important ingredient after the discard. Baking soda reacts with the natural acidity in the sourdough discard and gives the batter its rise. Without it, you'd have a dense, flat pikelet.
• Butter. For the pan. This is what gives the pikelet its crispy edges. Don't substitute oil unless you have to; the butter flavor is part of the point.

How To Make Pikelets Step-By-Step

For exact measurements, see the recipe card below.

1. Preheat your pan for 15 minutes on medium-low heat. Cast iron is ideal. The surface temp should be around 300º F.

2. Add the baking soda, salt, and sugar to your sourdough discard and stir. You'll immediately notice the batter puffs up from the baking soda reacting with the acidity in the discard.

PRO TIP: The key to perfect pikelets is cooking them LOW AND SLOW. If your pan is too hot, the outside burns before the inside cooks through, and you end up with a raw, doughy center. Use a surface thermometer the first time if you have one.

3. Add some butter to the pan and let it melt. This makes our pikelets nice and crispy!
   

4. The batter will be thick, so I use my hands to divide it. You can get about three small pikelets from one cup of discard. Pour the batter into the pan from the bowl, and then pinch the dough with your fingers to separate it.
   

5. Cook the pikelets for 5 minutes on one side, or until the edges start to look dry and you can see some holes forming on top.
   

6. Flip the pikelet over and cook for another 3 minutes.
   

Common Sourdough Pikelet Problems To Avoid

Sour aftertaste. Discard was way too old. Toss anything that smells like nail polish remover (that's alcohol, the yeast eating itself) and start with fresher discard next time.

Pikelets are doughy in the middle. Pan was too hot. Reduce to low and give the pan time to come back down before pouring the next batch.

Pikelets are dense and flat. Forgot the baking soda, or the discard was too old and lost most of its acidity. Use discard that's no more than a week old in the fridge.

Batter is too thin to hold a shape. Discard was too runny. Add a Tablespoon of flour to thicken it, or just let it sit 5 minutes for the gluten to relax and thicken on its own.

Pikelets are burning on the outside but raw inside. Pan too hot, full stop. Low and slow.

Make-Ahead And Storage

• Cooked pikelets, room temperature. Airtight container, 1 day. After that the texture goes soft.
• Cooked pikelets, freezer. Cool completely, single-layer flash freeze for 30 minutes, then bag. Up to 2 months. Reheat in a hot pan for 1 minute per side, or in the toaster.
• Sourdough discard, fridge. Up to 1 week in a covered jar. Bring to room temperature before mixing the batter.
• Already-mixed batter. Use within 30 minutes. The baking soda reaction loses lift the longer it sits.

For best results, hide from other family members and devour immediately!

If freezer breakfasts are your thing, my sourdough sandwich bread freezes great in slices too, and sourdough rolls freeze straight from the oven for dinner all week.

If you want a savory snack, try my rosemary sourdough discard crackers, same 5-minute prep, but they bake into shatter-crisp crackers with flake salt. For a sweet breakfast, my sourdough discard pancakes use a full cup of discard. And my sourdough discard donuts turn it into a weekend treat.

Sourdough Pikelet FAQs

More Sourdough Discard Recipes To Try