Perfect Fluffy Sour Cream Pancakes
I’ve never met a fluffier, more perfect pancake! These homemade sour cream pancakes are an indulgence – so delicious and incredibly quick to whip up!
Let’s talk about these pancakes.
They are a highly requested breakfast around here and are so light and so fluffy, they are what every pancake aspires to be.
Simple Pancake Batter
The batter for these sour cream pancakes is super simple and comes together fast.
Whisk together:
- Flour (all-purpose – I’ve also subbed in half whole wheat flour with good results)
- Sugar (just a tiny bit)
- Baking powder + baking soda + salt
And then stir in:
- Milk
- Eggs
- Sour cream
- Eggs
Don’t Over Mix!
As with all good homemade pancake batters, don’t over mix! The pancakes won’t be as fluffy and soft if you do.
Start mixing the batter with a rubber spatula and watch the clumps of dry ingredients closely.
Mix until those dry streaks JUST barely disappear.
A few little lumps will remain. And that’s fine! It’s what you want, actually.
How to Cook Pancakes
- Preheat a griddle or skillet/pan over medium heat until it is hot enough to sizzle a little drop of batter (but not so hot that it burns or smokes). This might be the most important step to cooking perfect pancakes!
- Drop the batter by large spoonfuls on to the hot griddle or pan. I use a #20 cookie scoop for about 1/4 cup or so of batter per pancake.
- Let the pancake sit without disturbing it! The batter will spread into a round shape. Let it cook until little bubbles start to pop at the surface (if you lift up an edge of the pancake with a turner, it should be golden brown on the bottom before flipping).
- Flip the pancake. DON’T PRESS ON THE PANCAKE AFTER FLIPPING. Let the pancake cook, adjusting the heat, if needed, until cooked through and golden on the other side.
Diner Style Flapjacks
Pancake perfection!
These fluffy sour cream pancakes are reminiscent of the pancakes you can score at any decent breakfast diner around town.
Soft but sturdy, they are epically fluffy and define breakfast comfort food at its finest.
There are no better pancakes than these, I’ll bet my last bag of chocolate chips on it.
Buttermilk Pancakes vs Sour Cream Pancakes
Buttermilk pancakes are one of the most popular pancake recipes out there. For good reason. They’re delicious!
So why does my recipe use sour cream instead of buttermilk?
Mainly, because of availability. While I love buttermilk and have many recipes that call for it, I wanted this pancake recipe to be doable for the majority, and I figured more of us keep sour cream on hand than we do buttermilk.
(And even though homemade buttermilk isn’t difficult to whip up with a bit of lemon juice and milk, in my recipe testing, the homemade buttermilk didn’t fare as well as a sub in classic buttermilk pancakes.)
What I found, when I recipe tested with sour cream, is that I love the result of using sour cream in pancakes just as much, if not more, than using buttermilk.
A Tried-and-True Favorite
These fluffy sour cream pancakes are a tried-and-true favorite. We make them very often on the weekends, but they’re quick enough to make on a weekday morning, too.
I’ve also subbed in half whole wheat flour in the recipe with great results.
The pancakes are delicious slathered in butter and maple syrup…or jam…or even just eaten plain. And they are our go-to breakfast when company comes to town. Classic and yummy, that’s a great combination!
Freezer-Friendly Pancakes
These pancakes are great for a make-ahead breakfast option. The baked and cooled pancakes can be stored in the freezer for a quick and easy breakfast!
I like to store them in a gallon-size freezer ziploc bag between sheets of wax paper or saran wrap.
They can be defrosted in the fridge overnight OR a 20-30 seconds in the microwave right before you want to eat one (or three) does the trick!
One Year Ago: Chicken and Black Bean Chili {Pressure Cooker}
Two Years Ago: Beef and Sweet Potato Stew with Corn and Green Chiles {Slow Cooker}
Three Years Ago: Cinnamon and Sugar Dusted Coconut Vanilla Breakfast Muffins
Fluffy Sour Cream Pancakes
Ingredients
- 3 cups (426 g) all-purpose flour (see note for whole wheat flour)
- 2 tablespoons (27 g) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (340 g) sour cream
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 3 large eggs (150 g out of shell)
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, melted (see note)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs and butter.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a spoon or spatula until just combined. The batter will be lumpy and it's ok if there are even a few streaks of flour here and there. Don't overmix! The key to light and fluffy pancakes is mixing just until combined.
- Let the batter rest while prepping the griddle.
- Heat a nonstick griddle to medium for 1-2 minutes until a drop of water sizzles (about 300 degrees F on my griddle, but every griddle will be a bit different).
- Pour batter into rounds on the preheated griddle (I use my #20 cookie scoop to portion out the batter which holds about 3-4 tablespoons).
- Cook until small bubbles appear on the surface and the edges are set, 1-3 minutes, depending on the heat of the griddle.
- Flip the pancakes and cook for another minute or so until golden and cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter.
- Serve immediately or keep warm in a 175 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Recipe originally published on February 2017; updated August 2022 and March 2023 with process photos, notes, etc.
Would any changes be necessary if I’m at 5300 ft in elevation?
I’m not entirely sure since I don’t live at high altitude but you might try decreasing the baking powder and soda slightly.
I made this today and i must say, i am in love. Not only was the recipe easy to follow, the taste was FANTASTIC!!
I am 71 years. These were the best pancakes I’ve ever made and tasted!
Felt like switching up my usual weekend pancake recipe, these babies were a hit. Didn’t change or add a thing. Now just to see how they reheat- don’t judge us for having leftovers, they’re deliciously filling!!
Forgot the star rating 😉
These are the absolute best pancakes I have ever had. Seriously, they are amazing. I was never a big fan of pancakes until I made these one night. I’ve made it several times now, sometimes with sour cream and sometimes with buttermilk, and I prefer the version made with buttermilk. I’ve also used up to 2 cups of wheat flour, with good results. Thank you for the best pancakes ever!
Absolutely delicious!!
I also used to slice bananas on top of the pancakes! Lately I have just lightly mashed a couple of over ripe bananas with a fork and tossed them in the batter. My son will sneak chocolate chips into them every time. I always tell him he’s adding too many , . , but then I want the pancakes with the most chips! LOL
Absolutely delicious pancakes. Thank you.
Best homemade pancakes I have ever made no question. Totally different level. My husband can’t have sour cream so anytime he’s gone on the weekends for breakfast I’m making these.
These really are the perfect pancakes — perfectly light, spongy, fluffy and almost creamy. We all loved them and kept getting comments about the perfect texture and flavor! Thank you — highly recommend them!!
I love these pancakes, they are quick and so very delicious 🙂
I have celiac disease so I used Bob’s red mill gluten-free 1 to 1 flour (blue bag). I used vegetable oil instead of butter. These were the softest, fluffiest, best pancakes I have ever had in my entire life! Thank you so much!
I’m not usually a pancake fan, but we’ve made these multiple times now, and they are now going into permanent rotation… I’m a fan! So fluffy and not too “cakey!” Tried the banana and chocolate chip combo tonight and oh my! Will be replicating that in the future! Also, I wanted to let you know Mel how much I love reading through your commentary before making each of your recipes. I use your food blog more than any other food blog, and reading your posts is part of the experience for me… lots of love for you and this recipe! ❤️
Great recipe!!! I served them with warmed strawberry syrup ❤️
I made these this morning and they were so easy, quick, and tasty. We tried the chocolate chip banana variation on some of them and they were a hit. The cookie scoop idea was brilliant for getting them all the same size! I only had a #40 scoop, so I used two scoops, but now a #20 is on my wishlist. As always, thanks for a great recipe. Life is Good 🙂
Seriuosly, the best fluffy pancakes Ive ever had! I added a bit more sugar though but that of course depends on the sweetness level that you want. But really, so happy with this recipe. I even tried the recipe as waffles and they turned out great! My little boys love them ❤ Thank you, Mel ❤
Can I store the mixed pancake mix in the fridge? We can’t really finish 2dozen in one sitting.
Yes, it should be fine for a day or so.
I just made them into waffles and it is sooooo good. Reallt soft and fluffy Always love your recipes ❤ Thank you!
Made these today and they were amazing! Best tasting pancakes ever! I did have to add a bit more milk to the batter, but I think that might be the Texas climate? Most pancake recipes I have tried need more liquid.
Look, i know you need certain word content so your recipe will pop up, but for the love of GOD can you please include a “jump to recipe” button so we dont have to wade through that endless, endless blathering about the most trite, boring bullshit the world has ever had to suffer through, just for a god damn pancake recipe? It felt sadistic. “Haha yes, you may have my pancake recipe, but first you must read about about my pathetically boring life, and loser kids. Bwahaha!” God, if you’d have posted your grandfather’s stamp collection, and all it was was reissues of the standard american flag stamp, it would be more interesting. Please just include a button so we can jump to the recipe.
Hey Maggie, I removed your 1-star review because it didn’t appear you had actually MADE the recipe (which is the reason the star reviews exist). Also, to let you know, I do have a jump to recipe button right underneath the recipe title up there, so you should be able to avoid the endless, endless blathering much easier next time. I’m honestly not sure if you were trying to be overly clever and snarkily funny in your comment, but to me, it just came across as rude and unhappy. I am sincerely sorry for whatever may be going on in your life that would cause you to write a comment like this. I hope things look up for you soon. (Also, if you do happen to come back, there’s no reason to create secondary profiles with different names to leave additional 1-star negative reviews – I can tell the IP addresses are the same and end up deleting the duplicate negativity).
I love your recipes and your adorable stories about you and your family.
After using this recipe, I solemnly promised my family I will never use another one. This coming from a guy who took pride in my sourdough pancakes.
I made my own sour cream using fresh cream and homemade kefir. Epic sour cream pancakes! Thanks, Mel. Best wishes from your admirer in Tucson.
Those pancakes DO sound epic, James! Wow! Homemade sour cream. Love that!
Wow. What a rude comment. Many of Mel’s followers, including me, enjoy her commentary. And you display your ignorance and lack of intelligence by the fact that you missed the “jump to recipe” link at the top of the post. Mel – I love you, I love your recipes, I love everything you say.
These are perfection! Not keto-friendly for my diet, but my five littles LOVED them with chocolate chips. Thanks for putting this out there!
These sound amazing and I’d love to try them, but I’d be cooking for just one. Any idea roughly how many this recipe makes? I’d like to cut it down, but not sure if a third of the recipe will still be far too many.
It makes about 1 1/2 to 2 dozen 3 or 4 inch pancakes.
I had great results using this recipe even though I made a few edits. Firstly, I accidentally used twice as much egg. I omitted the baking powder because I didn’t have any and found that the listed baking soda amount was completely sufficient to produce the desired fluffiness of the final pancake. Finally, I substituted plain yogurt for the milk. The pancakes were very tasty and filling.
So, you really didn’t make her recipe. Interesting.
I made these and they are delicious, really wonderful texture. I let them cool, layered them on parchment paper, put them in a 2.5 gallon bag and put them in the freezer. To eat, I heat them in my toaster oven (425 3 min one side, about 4 min on the other). I love to cook and freeze and these work beautifully. Thanks for the great recipe!
I want to make homemade meals for my family the week of Thanksgiving I came across your instagram page (thanks Jen Garner) and saw these and decided to give them a try. Holy Moly, they are delish. Easy to make and very full of flavor. The recipe makes a LOT, more than my family can eat, so I am hoping they are still good as a leftover warmed up tomorrow. 🙂 Thanks, I plan to bake/cook my way through the site this week. Ill keep you updated!!! Hi from Florida
Hey Mandy! So glad you found your way here! And super happy you loved these pancakes. I hope you enjoy any other recipes you try!
I’m a breakfast anytime kind of person(breakfast, lunch, or dinner). I knew sour cream pancakes were a thing and I use some recipe before but couldn’t find it. I saw this recipe and I tried it. I don’t have to ever look further again for another recipe. This was perfect. I doubled the recipe. I thought I had enough sour cream but was just a little short. I had some buttermilk also I needed to use up and that fell just short of the recipe too. I just finished it up with 1% milk we had on hand to make the measurements equal. That was the only things I did different. They were absolutely the best. So glad I found this recipe. I’ve made pancakes for over 20 years for my family and have had some good pancake recipes but now I have one that is better than all of them.
These pancakes are so very good – I added in choc chips to some & blk berries to others, & none seemed to even need butter or syrup. What a treat! I loved these.
These were delicious! I’m babysitting right now and the boys loved these! I had to third it, and it worked beautifully!
Hi, Mel!!
I’ve been going through all your pancake recipes, making them one by one in search of that classic homemade pancake taste. No complaints from my husband these past couple of weeks being the pancake tester! I’ve made almost all of them and today after I made this one, I search no further!!! This is THE ONE!!! Oh sooooo good!!!! It just brings me back to those weekend brunches when I was little! Don’t get me wrong, I loooved your other pancake recipes, too, but this one is exactly what I was looking for!! My husband says these pancakes are the best he’s ever had; the taste is on point and oh so fluffy! He was complimenting after every bite! As always, thanks so much for sharing your recipes!!! You NEVER disappoint!!! You’re awesome!
Hi Dalia!
I add a tablespoon or two of Horlicks malt for that old time flavor. Most mixes and diners and restaurants back in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s had malted barley in them that gave them to hat fantastic flavor. I get Horlicks from the English Tea Store.
I have Mede these pancakes twice.. both times, absolutely delicious. My husband says they are the best he has ever eaten.
I just tried out this recipe and it was delicious!! Definitely the best pancakes I’ve had in a while, so thank you! Just wondering, how many calories are there per serving for this recipe?
I know you have said that you don’t like pancakes. My heart breaks a little, but I still love you. 😉 That being said, luckily, you shared these with us. I grew up eating homemade pancakes and have a hard time eating pancakes in restaurants (or yikes, out of a box) because most recipes because, well, they’re awful. I do love your oatmeal mix pancakes (they’re so nutty and delicious) but these have to rank up there with my favorite, fluffy, pancakes. They might even *yikes* be better than my mom’s (but don’t tell her!) Because of the melted butter inside of them there is no need to put butter on top because the little spots of butter inside are so perfectly delectable. Yum. Wow. I might have the leftovers for lunch. They don’t even really need syrup but they’re delicious with just a little bit! Thank you, thank you, thank you. The kids inhaled them, they were filling, and so moist and fluffy!
P.S. I had a few “taller” pancakes like someone said (I’m still trying to learn how to use my electric stove/griddle with temps and times) to “fix” that I just pushed the batter down a little as I put them on if they were too tall, and that worked and they cooked better.
I made these pancakes for my family for breakfast. They all loved it! One problem though, the pancakes were very tall. I did all the steps. I don’t know what happened. But, they were very good.
Tall meaning very fat…
I added about a 1/4 cup more of milk and a tsp of vanilla. This will be my go to pancake recipe!
Have you ever made these into waffles??
I haven’t – sorry!
We made them into waffles tonight, no changes necessary. They turned out perfectly! Mmmmmmmmmm
I didn’t read the instructions to not mix much so my pancakes were not so fluffy. But they tasted great and rose quite high. I didn’t use butter, so I imagine there would have been better flavor but I was happy with this batch I made for my son the next morning since I tend to sleep in.
These are delicious! I made them with 2/3 home ground whole wheat that I ground pretty fine and the rest all purpose flour and they were still SO fluffy. I also did the buttermilk substitution. Worked great! So yummy and easy!
My family absolutely loves these pancakes! I wanted to share a gluten-free hack- I just tried subbing 2 cups of “Grandpa’s Kitchen” Gluten Free Baking Flour blend for the 3 cups of all purpose flour the recipe calls for, and they turned out just as fantastic as the original!
Thank you! We made these yesterday subbing cup4cup 1:1 gluten free flour for the flour and they turned out really well too!
First pancake recipe that we all liked!! This recipe is perfect for whole wheat!! I used 100% fresh ground Kamut. I love Kamut for making my own pasta – but haven’t used it for anything else. Fresh ground Kamut tastes like white flour. With the sour cream, this was AMAZING!! This is our new pancake recipe!!!
Thank you for this recipe 🙂 it worked really well. I made 1/3 of the recipe because there are only 2 of us at home and no freezer space I used 3.5oz of AP flour and 1.5oz of spelt flour. Added a tablespoon more of milk cos batter looked slightly dry due to the spelt flour. Delicious! Thank you once again!
Absolutely great! They were nice and fluffy and with very little syrup I had no need to make a cake later. The texture was good and the low 300 temperature did the trick giving it perfect consistency. This is my go to recipe for pancakes, I am sure my family will enjoy them too!!
I made these twice and my husband made them once. Mine turned out fluffy once. His were not. Not sure what happened. We’re both avid cooks. I did have my eggs as room temp though when the pancakes turned out fluffy.
Flavor suggestion: add vanilla, and increase the sugar to 4-8T (1/4-1/2c). I think pancakes should taste a little sweet even without any syrup or toppings. So I always increase the sugar content a little. As written, they were unappealing in the flavor department to me. But pretty fluffy.
Could you substitute the sour cream with Greek yogurt? I just rarely have sour cream on hand and sub Greek yogurt as toppings when I need to. Not sure if it would change the batter too much.
I haven’t tried that but usually greek yogurt makes a great sub for sour cream.
I don’t ever write reviews, but I just had to on this one. I made these on a whim after googling “sour cream pancakes” because I had a huge tub of sour cream to use.
I made them for 6 adults (two of which claimed they don’t like pancakes). I added some fresh blueberries to the batter. And oh my, every single person said they were the best pancakes they had ever had, and the two who don’t like pancakes had seconds.
I even forgot to add butter to the batter, but i did put butter on the griddle as I made them so they cooked in it.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
Made these for dinner tonight with 50% white whole wheat flour. Still fluffy and super yummy! Perfect for using up some sour cream that was on its way out!
OH MY GOD. What have you done. Now I have to make this pancake at least once a week. This is it. This is THE pancake recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this – you are amazing!!!
I’ve made these twice. They are a lovely texture and fluffy, but for some reason they have an eggy taste to me. It’s subtle and no one else in my family seems to notice, but I’m not a fan of that background taste.
This is definitely my new favorite pancake recipe. I’m going to have to start stocking sour cream in my fridge from now on. I have had strange results with supposedly great pancake recipes, but this one cannot be improved upon in my opinion! Today I had to sub 1/2 c Greek yogurt because I only had 1 c of sour cream and it worked like a charm.
Glad you are loving this one, Megan!
I made these yesterday and they were amazing! I’ve tried other sour cream pancake recipes, and I’m definitely going to stick with this one! We have a mini-farm with 12 chickens and a 30ft garden. Maybe it was the farm fresh eggs that made it taste so good, but nothing beats this one. This is definitely a keeper! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes!
Thanks, Maram!
I, like you, don’t love love pancakes, but I’ve been trying new recipes to see if my opinion changes (your overnight buttermilk pancakes are pretty great). I made these this weekend and subbed Greek yogurt for sour cream because that’s what I had on hand. I liked them and the huz declared them to be his favorite pancakes. I think the pancake search is over! 🙂
If I don’t want to make the whole batch can I keep the batter in the fridge?
I think so – I haven’t tried that, though. You could cut the recipe in half OR make the full batch and freeze the cooked pancakes to reheat later.
Made these as a waffle batter with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, it was out of this world!!!!
Another winner Mel!
Mel, Mel, Mel. Every time you post a pancake recipe, I think, “This is it! I’ve found the One. I’ll never find a better one!” And these are no exception. I used a can of coconut milk and milk, and subbed full-fat plain yogurt for the sour cream. I added the sliced bananas and chocolate chips like you suggested and a little sprinkle of unsweetened coconut flakes. A-MAZE-ing. Did not need syrup (but used it anyway #habit)!