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This easy Buttermilk Pancake recipe uses just a handful of basic ingredients to make thick, fluffy pancakes. The secret is in how the batter is mixed and letting it rest before you cook!
Most buttermilk pancake recipes are more or less the same. But mine is set apart, in a very intentional way: the batter is thicker and rests before cooking. When I was testing this recipe, I tried different amounts of buttermilk, different ways of mixing the batter, and letting the batter sit or not, all to see how the thickness of the batter influenced the resulting pancakes. The thicker batter made the fluffiest pancakes!
In this post, I will walk you through each of those tests and why they matter. The batter also holds mix-ins very well, so toss in some blueberries, chocolate chips, banana slices, or anything you love in your pancakes, and make the best breakfast!
“This is the most delicious buttermilk pancake recipe. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed these pancakes. They were fluffy, buttery, and just delicious. I added some blueberries to a few of the pancakes for variety.”
Jennifer
Why This Batter Is Thicker
My recipe uses a higher amount of flour than many other buttermilk pancake recipes, and that’s intentional.
Thick batter puffs; thin batter spreads. A loose batter runs outward the moment it hits the pan, and you get a wide, thin pancake that spreads before it can rise. A batter that holds its shape for a few seconds before slowly spreading out has time for leaveners to react and build height while the edges set.
I tested both thinner and thicker batter. I tested different batches with different amounts of buttermilk, leaving the flour and leaveners the same. The batch with 2¼ cups of buttermilk was runnier and spread immediately when I scooped it onto the pan. The thinner version made perfectly good pancakes, but they were wider, flatter, and less fluffy. The thicker version used 2 cups of buttermilk and made a batter thick enough to scoop onto the griddle and hold its shape while gently spreading over several seconds. The pancakes were thick, fluffy, and moist in the center, so it’s what I chose for the recipe.
If you prefer the thinner style, I put a note in the recipe card with exactly how much extra buttermilk to add.
Which Pancake Recipe You Want
I have several pancake recipes, and they all have their place on your breakfast table; it just depends on what you’re looking for. Here’s how they differ:
| Recipe | Liquid | What you get |
| Buttermilk pancakes (this recipe!) | Buttermilk | Thick, tangy, diner-style stack. Least sweet |
| Classic pancakes | Regular milk | The everyday version. Softer, milder, no shopping trip needed for specialty dairy |
| Blueberry pancakes | Buttermilk | Thick and fluffy. Built with the fruit so the flavor and textures are balanced |
| Banana pancakes | Milk plus mashed banana | Denser and naturally sweeter; less added sugar needed |
| Whole wheat pancakes | Buttermilk | Nuttier and heartier; wheat flour absorbs more liquid, so I use whole milk, which is thinner |
| Sourdough pancakes | Sourdough discard plus milk | Tangy from the starter rather than the dairy. A slight but pleasant chewiness |
Key Ingredients
These are the main ingredients you need to make buttermilk pancakes. You can find the full list of ingredients and measurements in the recipe card below.
Buttermilk — cultured buttermilk is acidic and is needed to react with the baking soda in the batter for fluffy pancakes. It’s also thicker than the milk-and-vinegar substitute, and that thickness is doing structural work here. If you don’t have buttermilk, measure out 2 cups of milk and then remove two tablespoons. Stir in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes. Or use my guide to learn how to make buttermilk four ways, and how each one behaves differently.
Baking soda and baking powder — these leaveners do the heavy lifting in the batter. The baking soda reacts with the buttermilk’s acid immediately and gives you the initial lift. The baking powder is double-acting, so it partially reacts when mixed, and then holds a second charge in reserve for the heat of the pan. Using both gives the fluffiest results.
Butter — drizzle it into the bowl with the wet and dry ingredients when you start mixing rather than dumping it straight into the wet mixture. If your buttermilk is cold, the butter will seize into little flecks as it hits—that looks alarming and is completely normal. Adding it to both the wet and dry reduces that risk. But if it does happen, mix and carry on; it disperses in the batter, and your pancakes will still be great.
Sugar — my recipe is noticeably less sweet than most because there’s only a tablespoon of sugar in the whole batch. But that’s because pancakes are often doused in maple syrup! If you want them sweeter, feel free to add more sugar (up to ¼ cup).
Salt — I use a full teaspoon in this recipe to balance the acidity of the buttermilk and any sweet toppings. The pancakes won’t taste savory, but they do have a slightly salty edge by design. It means the pancake tastes like something on its own rather than just a vehicle for syrup, and the syrup lends contrast rather than being sweet-on-sweet.
How To Make Buttermilk Pancakes
Here are portions of the recipe highlighted in step-by-step process images. You can find the full set of instructions in the recipe card below.
1. Whisk the dry ingredients—flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt—in a large bowl. This will hold the batter, so make sure the bowl is large enough for the wet ingredients to be added and stirred in.
2. Whisk the wet. Mix the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla together until the eggs are well combined with the buttermilk.
3. Mix the batter. Pour the wet into the dry, immediately add the melted butter, and fold everything together until it’s mostly combined. Leave the lumps! Small lumps throughout the batter mean you haven’t over-developed the gluten. A smooth batter means you have, and too much gluten is what makes a pancake rubbery. Plus, the pancakes will turn out flatter (more on that below!).
4. Heat the pan. Place your skillet or griddle over medium heat and give it time to warm up fully. This also gives time for the batter to rest, which thickens it and helps any small lumps of flour hydrate. When it’s hot, butter the pan, and scoop ¼ to ⅓ cup per pancake. Scoop gently so you don’t knock the air out. (You will need to cook in batches based on the size of your pan or griddle.)
5. Cook until golden and bubbles appear on top. This will take 3 to 4 minutes. If you turn the pancakes too early, they’ll be misshapen, or they can fall apart.
6. Flip and finish cooking. Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the other side, another 2-3 minutes. Adjust the heat between medium and medium-low as you go. The pan tends to get hotter with each batch, so adjust as needed.
A Lumpy Batter Makes Fluffier Pancakes
While it might feel wrong, this actually results in fluffier homemade pancakes! This is the same technique I use in my classic pancake recipe as well to avoid tough and dense pancakes. You should stir the batter until the ingredients are combined so you don’t have any large streaks or big pockets of flour, but if you see small lumps in the batter, leave them. If you continue stirring the batter until it’s completely smooth, you risk overworking it and increasing the gluten, causing your pancakes to bake up flatter, denser, and tougher.
My team tested this to show just how much of a difference it makes. The stack on the left was made with batter then whisked until completely smooth (about 1 minute). The batter on the right was mixed just until all dry bits of flour were incorporated, leaving lots of small lumps throughout the bowl. The pancakes baked taller and fluffier as a result. The smooth batter has a stronger gluten network, which is harder work for the leaveners to lift, resulting in thinner, denser pancakes.
Mix and Rest the Batter
Give the batter five to ten minutes to sit while the pan comes up to temperature. Two things happen in that window:
The flour hydrates. Dry flour keeps absorbing liquid for several minutes after mixing, so a batter that looked slightly loose at first will have thickened by the time you cook it. And like we discussed earlier, a thinner batter spreads more when it hits the pan, so the pancakes get thinner and wider instead of staying thick and fluffy.
The leavening starts working. The soda meets the buttermilk’s acid, and you’ll see bubbles and air pockets forming on the surface. That’s half of the fluffiness mechanism, sitting in the bowl. This is also why you don’t stir it again. Every stir after the resting period collapses the bubbles you just created. Scoop from the bowl gently; don’t scrape and mix between pancakes, but know that the last pancake of the batch will be slightly less airy than the first.
I test this to show you the difference between the batter when it is first mixed and after 10 minutes. The batter in the bowl looks lumpy and somewhat thick, but it’s runny and doesn’t hold its shape at all. After the rest, the batter can hold a streak when the spatula is moved through it, before slowly settling back down.
Getting the Pan Right
Use a nonstick pan or an electric griddle if you have one. A griddle holds temperature more evenly across its surface than a skillet on a burner, which is why the pancake in the middle of a skillet often browns differently from the one at the edge. You can also cook more at one time, so it makes the whole process faster! This recipe works great in a stove-top skillet, too!
Preheat the pan, but adjust the heat. Make sure the pan is properly preheated before you start, and then adjust the heat as needed. Pancake pans get hotter the longer they are on the burner. If your second batch is browning noticeably faster than your first, drop to medium-low. If the pan gets too hot or the heat is too high, you will get a dark exterior with a raw middle because the pancakes look done well before they are.
Test the skillet before the butter goes in. Flick a few drops of water at the pan. If they skitter and dance, it’s ready. If they sit and steam, wait. A cooler pan doesn’t set the edges as quickly, which allows the batter to spread more. Plus, a hotter pan helps the butter brown more, so the pancakes turn nice and golden.
Mix-Ins and Toppings
Fold in add-ins before resting. Add them once the flour is about halfway incorporated; that way the folding you’d have done anyway distributes them, instead of requiring extra stirring at the end when the batter is already aerated. You can add up to 1 cup total of chunky mix-ins like blueberries, mini chocolate chips, chopped strawberries, banana slices, or diced apple.
Or, drop them onto the pancakes in the pan. Right after the batter is scooped onto the pan, sprinkle some mix-ins right on top. This helps with more even distribution, or if you want to make a few blueberry pancakes and a few chocolate chip pancakes—you don’t have to flavor the whole batch of batter!
Spices go in with the dry ingredients. Dry ingredients like cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or lemon zest add flavor and should be mixed in from the start so it fully flavors the batter.
For toppings, butter and maple syrup are the classic and hard to improve on. Beyond that, strawberry sauce, whipped cream, a spoonful of lemon curd, or caramel are fun ways to dress up a pancake breakfast.
Storing and Reheating
Cool completely first on a wire rack in a single layer. Stacking warm pancakes traps condensation, and they go soggy in the container.
Refrigerator: airtight, with parchment between layers for up to 5 days.
Freezer: same layering, but place them in a zip-top freezer bag, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Reheating: the toaster is the best option because it crisps the outside again. The air fryer at 325°F for a few minutes also works well. The microwave, for 30 seconds to a minute, is the fastest option but leaves them soft. Add a little extra time to any method if you are reheating from frozen.
Pro Tips For The Best Buttermilk Pancakes
Use a nonstick pan or griddle if you have one. It’s easier to flip the pancakes with less risk of them sticking, even when using butter.
A thin, wide spatula helps flip. A thinner spatula that is also flexible will get under the pancakes more easily so you can flip them without messing up the edges.
Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe
Equipment
- Large skillet or griddle
- Large bowl
- Medium bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups buttermilk (480ml)
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons butter melted (plus more for the pan)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla until well combined.
- Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture, then add the butter. Fold together until combined, but a few lumps remain. (This texture in the batter helps make fluffier, airier pancakes!) Set the batter aside to rest while you heat the skillet.
- Heat a large skillet or pancake griddle over medium heat. (To test if it is hot enough, flick a few drops of water onto the surface. If they dance around and evaporate within 5-10 seconds, it’s hot enough.) Once hot, brush with a little butter to lightly grease the pan.
- Working in batches, add about ¼ to ⅓ cup of batter to the pan for each pancake, leaving space among them to spread slightly. (Gently scoop the batter from the bowl so as to not disturb the airiness of the batter.)
- Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until golden on the bottom and bubbles start to appear on the top, then flip over and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the pan with more butter as needed between batches. Adjust the heat between medium and medium-low as you cook the batches to make evenly browned pancakes. Serve hot with butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Notes
- These make thick, fluffy pancakes. For a thinner pancake, add up to ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) of additional buttermilk.
- To keep pancakes warm while you cook the rest, hold them on a wire rack set inside a baking sheet in a 200°F oven. Keep them in a single layer, not overlapping, or they will steam and turn soggy.
- To store: cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze up to 3 months, with parchment between layers. Reheat in the toaster, microwave, or air fryer.
Nutrition
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can make a substitute with milk plus lemon juice or vinegar, or by thinning yogurt, sour cream, or kefir—learn how to make a buttermilk substitute. But know that a homemade substitute is thinner than cultured buttermilk, and this recipe is built around a thick batter. Hold back about half a cup of the substitute, mix the batter, and then add the rest only if it seems too stiff. Adding all of it up front is a common way these pancakes come out flat. If you’d rather not bother, my classic pancake recipe is designed for regular milk from the start!
Bubbles form across the surface and start bursting rather than just appearing, and the edges look set and matte instead of wet. Lift an edge with the spatula and check the color underneath, too. You want a golden brown bottom. If the bubbles are appearing but not bursting, give it another thirty seconds.
Overmixing is most likely. A batter stirred until smooth has developed too much gluten, and gluten makes pancakes flat and rubbery. Stop mixing while lumps remain. The second cause is a thin batter, usually from a buttermilk substitute or incorrectly measured ingredients. The third is stirring the batter again after it’s rested, which knocks out the air the leavening just made.
You can mix the wet and dry separately, then keep the wet in the fridge for up to 12 hours. Mix them together with the butter when you’re ready to cook. The mixed batter will hold for about an hour or so, but beyond that some of the leavening will be spent, and you’ll get flatter pancakes.
It’ll work, but it isn’t quite the same. Waffle batter needs more fat and more sugar than pancake batter. The fat crisps the exterior against the hot iron and the sugar helps it color. My waffle recipe is balanced for that!
More Breakfast Recipes To Try
Try one of these easy breakfast recipes next:
- Pancake Recipe — the milk-based original, balanced for regular milk rather than buttermilk.
- Banana Waffles — fluffy and perfectly sweet from mashed bananas in the batter.
- Blueberry Pancakes — the same buttermilk base built around the fruit, so the berries don’t sink or bleed.
- Banana Pancakes — denser and naturally sweeter from very ripe bananas.
- French Toast — the other weekend breakfast staple, and a great use for day-old bread.
If you’ve tried this buttermilk pancake recipe, then don’t forget to rate it and let me know how you got on in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
