Published January 22, 2014 12:00AM
How to Make Sourdough Hotcakes
Food from the frontier
They're called hotcakes or flapjacks—never pancakes. (Photo: Yagi Studio)
This Klondike-era recipe adapted from Alaska Sourdough: The Real Stuff By a Real Alaskan is best when made from scratch.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sourdough starter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 scant teaspoon baking soda (full teaspoon if starter is really sour), dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water
Directions
- Combine the starter, sugar, egg, oil, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well.
- When you’re ready to pour the batter onto the griddle, gently fold in the dissolved baking soda—do not beat.
- Notice the deep hollow tone as the sourdough fills with bubbles and doubles in bulk.
- Bake on hot griddle to seal brown. Serve on hot plates.
Sourdough Starter
A good one is the key here. If your family hasn’t preserved their starter from when they emigrated west on the Oregon Trail in 1847, like Carl Griffith’s has, that’s OK. Friends of the Griffiths will share some of theirs with anyone who sends them a self-addressed stamped envelope. (Seriously, the folks at CarlsFriends.org are that cool.)