Sour cream pancakes do not taste like they contain sour cream, but they are much more tender, fluffy, and delicious. Give these Melt in your Mouth Sour Cream Pancakes a try, you won’t regret it!
Every Saturday morning is hot breakfast at our house (yes, we do cereal, yogurt etc. all week long for the kids) and that generally means pancakes or crepes.
It’s a great time for our family to just breathe and be together. It’s amazing how much busier we get with each year and we really need that time to regroup, talk about important things or silly things, and just enjoy a quiet morning. Melt in your mouth sour cream pancakes have become a favorite breakfast recipe!
While I know it will be hard to convince you to try something other than our VIRAL recipe for Melt in Your Mouth Buttermilk Pancakes, this melt in your mouth sour cream pancakes really is a must. But before you read on, make sure you check out that buttermilk pancakes post so you can read all of our tips about making perfect pancakes.
We first learned about sour cream pancakes from Ina Garten, and listen, you don’t improve Ina recipes. They are just flat out perfection every time, except this time.
We are homemade pancake people. Not really into mixes. In fact, my husband is picky about pancakes. It’s my fault. When we got married he was a VERY strict eater. Healthy foods only and no sweets at all. One day I made him chocolate chip pancakes and he slowly came to my side.
Now he is picky about pancakes. They have to be fluffy, not overly though, and they have to have chocolate chips. That being said, both Cade and I have decided these melt in your mouth sour cream pancakes are one of our favorites.
What’s in Sour Cream Pancakes?
For the best sour cream pancakes of your life, you’ll need the usual blend of all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, eggs, milk, and vanilla, plus the special additions of sour cream (of course!), grated lemon zest, melted butter, and sliced bananas.
Yep, you read that right! These are banana sour cream pancakes. Or at least, that’s how we prefer making ours. If you’re in the mood for classic pancakes with sour cream, omit the bananas this time.
How We Improved Ina Garten’s Sour Cream Pancakes
Ina, if you’re reading this, please know that normally we follow your recipes exactly as they’re written. But this time, we took a few liberties with your sour cream pancake recipe because, you know, we’re food bloggers and we can’t help ourselves!
The one teensy change we made to Ina Garten’s pancake recipe is we drizzled in a little extra butter while doing the final mix of the batter. We first discovered this hack in our original pancakes recipe and it makes a HUGE difference. Just trust us, this one little trick is worth it!
How to Make Sour Cream Pancakes
These fluffy sour cream pancakes couldn’t be easier to make. The basic steps for making perfect pancakes every time are:
- Stir together the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to combine.
- Gently stir in melted butter as you’re doing the final mix of the batter.
- Ladle pancake batter onto buttered, preheated skillet and flip once bubbles appear (add the sliced banana before flipping, if using).
That’s it! Homemade sour cream pancakes require just a few extra ingredients, but they’re still a cinch to make on the weekend.
Can I Use a Sour Cream Substitute?
No, for these sour cream pancakes you have to use real sour cream. However, if you use a sour cream substitute (like Greek yogurt or a non-dairy alternative) and it works well for you, please let us know in a comment below so we can try it out too!
How to Freeze Pancakes
Love the idea of pancakes on the weekend, but know you’ll be short on time? You can make a batch of sour cream pancakes (or any pancakes, for that matter) and freeze them for later.
To freeze pancakes, cook them as you normally would and then let them cool to room temperature. Freeze them in a freezer bag and reheat in the toaster or in a warm oven. If you’re worried about your pancakes getting squished in the freezer bag, freeze the pancakes on a baking tray first, and then transfer them to a bag.
Tips for Making Sour Cream Pancakes
These melt in your mouth sour cream pancakes have never disappointed, but I will say this, follow the instructions to a T. There’s a reason we list a specific salt to use, and to mix dry and wet separate. I’ll save you the hassle of messing these fluffy sour cream pancakes up, just stick to the recipe.
Before we turn you over to the recipe, there’s a little lemon zest in this recipe and though you can easily skip it without it hurting the recipe at all, it really does add a little something. Our kids were a little worried the first time they added it, but it truly is a wonderful addition that no one would ever guess. It makes the pancakes lighter and more fresh tasting than a heavy, old fashioned pancake.
More Homemade Pancake Recipes:
- Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
- Meyer Lemon Pancakes
- White Chocolate Blueberry Pancakes
- Cinnamon Burst Pancakes
- Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
- Glazed Donuts Pancakes
- Maple Bar Pancakes
- Melt in Your Mouth Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
- BEST Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- Brown Sugar Peach Pancakes
- Carrot Cake Pancakes
- Healthy Wild Blueberry Cottage Cheese Pancakes
- Skinny Strawberry Shortcake Gluten Free Pancakes
- Blueberry Pecan Pancakes
- All our SWEET BREAKFAST RECIPES here!
Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
Description
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup milk, plus 1 tablespoon
- 2 extra-large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
- 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving* optional
Instructions
Pancakes
- Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest.
- Add the wet and dry together and begin to mix until just combined, drizzling in the melted butter and gently folding at the very end. . You really don't want to over mix pancakes
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles.
- Ladle the pancake batter into the pan.
- Place banana slices on top and cook until bubbles appear and begin to pop.
- Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned.
Syrup
- Bring the butter, sugar, karo syrup, vanilla and buttermilk to a boil.
- Add baking soda and boil 10 seconds then remove from heat to avoid boil over. This stuff goes crazy so make sure you are paying attention!!!
- Serve over those sweet, delicious pancakes or whatev'!
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products
Buttermilk Syrup
This is one of those recipes that I grew up with and I don’t know why, but it took me years to remember it and bring it back with my family. It’s absolutely the best syrup around and trust me, you have to try it yourself to understand.
Melt in Your Mouth Buttermilk Pancakes
The absolute best recipe (after testing hundreds) for buttermilk pancakes. In fact, these are melt in your mouth buttermilk pancakes!
Here’s another easy homemade pancake recipe you should try!
Sam
We make these wonderfully delicious pancakes on weekends, sometimes adding blueberries instead of bananas. We zest an entire lemon. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Sweet Basil
They are the best weekend breakfast! So glad you enjoy them as much as we do!
Katie
I was able to use this recipe using gluten free 1:1 flour, and nondairy swapouts. Avocado oil for butter, Ripple brand milk (The most creamy “milk” I’ve found so far) and a plant based sour cream. I did leave out the lemon zest and was heavy handed with the vanilla extract. Overall they were delicious!!
Sweet Basil
Hi Katie! Thank you so much for all the tips!
Renee
Tonight I am sooooo depressed that I have made it nearly 44 years without having THIS PANCAKE RECIPE!!!! This is it, the very last new pancake recipe I will ever try, because the are the pancakes I’m making for the rest of my life! The BOMB! Thank you so much!
Sweet Basil
You are the best Renee! Thank you for the feedback!
Brittany Audra @ Audra’s Appetite
Love making something hot, special, and different for Saturday brunch…these are perfect! YUM
Sweet Basil
Us too! Enjoy!
Donnlee
Our family is partial to pancakes and syrup. We turn our buttermilk syrup into coconut syrup by substituting the corn syrup with a tsp of coconut flavoring…yum over warm pancakes, strawberries, and bananas…or huckleberries. I bought a 16 qt stockpot just to handle the quadrupled batch for the reunion-no more over flows.
Sweet Basil
Love that! We do something similar and yes for big pots! Those overflows are so annoying!
Cassie
Question? When you say use one cube of butter in the syrup, do you mean 1 stick (1/2 cup) or 2 tablespoons (which is a cube)?
Thanks.
Sweet Basil
oh, let me correct that! It’s 1 stick, so 1/2 cup. Thanks for catching that!
mommycall
We should have people over then I would not have eaten so much 🙂
Thanks!
Carrian
We just store ours in this little syrup jar we have. I have kept it for about 2 weeks, but I think the flavor had faded slightly. We have had people over each time I have made it so I haven’t ever had to store very much.
mommycall
The buttermilk syrup is amazing over banana pancakes! How do you store the extra syrup and for how long?
Thanks!
Mary Ann
The pancakes look great! I am so glad you liked them. I am really interested in the buttermilk syrup- I think I would love it!
Emily
Oh these sound so good. I wish I had some pancakes right now!
Sara
These look great, I think I saw them on the Barefoot Contessa’s tv show. The buttermilk syrup sounds really interesting – I always end up with leftover buttermilk when I bake, now I know what to do with it!
Jaime
you should make those and just throw some bananas and chocolate chips into the batter – yum!