Light and fluffy buttermilk pancakes from The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (page 150) by J. Kenji López-Alt

Ingredients

all-purpose flour
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- King Arthur Baking - United States
- Hayden Flour Mills - United States
sour cream
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Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

HungryScientist on May 03, 2026

Plenty of dishes made in the pursuit of these pancakes, but they were true true to their name. Paired these with some honey miso butter and they were delicious
britty_3iqad6 on April 05, 2026

These are so good! My gosh. Mind the blueberry advice!
JessElisabeth on February 01, 2026

These were really light and fluffy, will definitely make again for special occasions or when we need to use up buttermilk
dmdmdmmm on January 16, 2026

We dont have buttermilk in the PH so i used mixture of milk + vinegar. Were they better than my box mix pancakes? YES. Were they the best pancakes I’ve ever had? Maybe. The method reminded me of those Souffle Pancakes that trended wayy back. As a lover of pancake (lol) it’s something I’d want again but i feel like it’s just too fussy for me ?? it’s def something you’d wanna make if you wanna impress someone with your pancake making skills lol i wonder tho how the pancake mix would fair if i dont follow his method and just mixed in some milk, fat and eggs? ??
bfish on December 30, 2025

Pretty good entry in my ongoing quest for perfect pancakes. Subbed rolled oat/ancient grain mix from TJs for half the flour, and added some sourdough starter. I don’t think the starter helped. Would make again.
VegasCook37 on July 14, 2024

Lots of dishes and lots of steps. Proud of myself for whipping the egg whites by hand. Made as written. Made half a batch. Made 9 small pancakes Nice, light and thicker cakes.
Pandan on March 31, 2024

Made these without the sour cream and used more buttermilk and a tiny bit of Greek yogurt. Turned out really well!
joeljkp on May 08, 2022

These are exceptionally good pancakes, and true to the name. Our go-to special-occasion recipe.
jhallen on March 31, 2021

These were good, and were light and fluffy, particularly given how thick they were. Still, I prefer a thinner pancake. But they were good.
clcorbi on February 20, 2017

I had all the ingredients on hand to make these pancakes so I knew we had to try them out. This is my first use of the book, and the result was really nice! These pancakes are decidedly fluffier than my go-to recipe (from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone). As always, I doctored the batter with a bunch of cinnamon and a little nutmeg. As good as these were, the batter is a bit fussy to make, because you have to separate and beat an egg white. I will probably only use this recipe on occasions where I have sour cream to use up, but we did thoroughly enjoy them.