Buttermilk Strawberry Pancakes — These homemade pancakes are studded with diced strawberries and sprinkles. If desired, top a stack of these babies with homemade vanilla maple butter before digging in!
The BEST Buttermilk Strawberry Pancakes
I’m not really a pancake maker. My last blog recipe for pancakes was January 2010. But these buttermilk strawberry pancakes were so good and so easy that I won’t wait three more years to post another pancake recipe.
One of the reasons I’ve never been very into pancakes is because they require some babysitting. Standing at the stove, watching, waiting, flipping; repeating. Baking French toast in a pan, especially with an overnight-make-ahead option, is easier and more efficient. Throw it all in a pan and bake; no flipping or grease splattering on my forearms required.
But some spare buttermilk needed to be used and fluffy buttermilk pancakes came about.
These are the BEST buttermilk pancakes. They’re soft, tender, fluffy, and as light as a pancake that’s loaded with sprinkles and strawberries can be. The smell of strawberries being cooked is just scrumptious, and they add texture, flavor, and remind me of warmer weather and summer days.
Sprinkles go with everything and make everything taste better, even warm, buttery pancakes loaded to the max with strawberries and dripping in syrup.
Note to self: make pancakes again sooner rather than later.
What’s in Buttermilk Strawberry Pancakes?
These homemade pancakes contain the usual lineup of ingredients, plus a few extra special ingredients. For this easy pancake recipe, you’ll need:
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Buttermilk
- Egg
- Canola oil
- Vanilla extract
- Strawberries
- Sprinkles
How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes with Strawberries
To make the pancakes, combine the dry ingredients in one bowl. Pour 1 cup buttermilk in a large measuring cup, add 1 egg, oil, vanilla, and whisk to combine. Pour the wet over the dry and stir to just moisten.
The batter will be lumpy, but don’t over mix because this will develop the gluten, creating tough pancakes. The batter will also be quite thick, but if it’s too thick for your preference, add a small splash of buttermilk to thin it out.
Warm a large skillet over medium-low to medium heat, spray with cooking spray, and add 1/4 cup batter. I comfortably fit three pancakes in my skillet at once. The strawberry pancakes recipe only makes six pancakes so the total babysitting time isn’t much.
After the batter is in the skillet, add a small handful of diced strawberries to each pancake.
Allow the pancakes to cook for about 3 minutes on the first side. That old trick about looking for bubbles to appear as your clue that the pancakes are ready to be flipped didn’t work for me. I didn’t see many bubbles even when the underside had turned golden and was time to flip. Plus, with strawberry pieces covering a majority of the surface area, it’s tricky to really see if there were bubbles present. Maybe my kitchen is just too dark or I need glasses, which are entirely possible. But after 3 minutes, I’d check to see if the underside is golden and set and prepare to flip.
Right before flipping the pancakes, sprinkle each one with rainbow sprinkles. Then flip and cook on the second side for about 3 minutes, or until done.
Flipping pancakes is a scary job. The only thing that’s worse is omelets. I use two spatulas (flippers) and do my best to scoop each pancake up and then plop the raw side face down, without turning my nice round discs into raggedy-looking, oblong shapes that are folded into themselves. But in the end, the oddly shaped and perfectly shaped pancakes taste the same.
Before serving, I garnished my homemade buttermilk pancakes with a few more strawberries for an extra pop of color and taste before dousing them in Vanilla Maple Butter. It’s an infusion of melted butter and warm syrup, spiked with vanilla, and it’s my favorite thing to top pancakes, French toast, and waffles with. Strawberry Butter isn’t too shabby either.
Can I Use a Buttermilk Substitute?
Buttermilk is a workhorse when it comes to keeping baked goods soft, light, tender and fluffy. When buttermilk meets up with baking soda, carbon dioxide bubbles form, and the bubbles create lift and lightness, keeping banana bread light and cinnamon rolls soft and fluffy. It does the same for pancakes.
If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand, add 2 tablespoons white vinegar (or lemon juice) to 1 cup regular milk, let it stand for 10 minutes to curdle, stir, and you have homemade buttermilk. Or combine 3/4 cup milk with about 1/4 cup of yogurt and stir. Don’t use buttermilk shortcuts when you’re making a fancy cake or a fussy recipe, but for pancakes, cheat freely.
Should I Use Fresh or Frozen Strawberries?
I used 1 cup frozen whole strawberries that I diced into smaller pieces. If using frozen fruit, don’t thaw it first; just add it frozen. It won’t bleed, run, or be as hard to work with. If you have fresh berries, great. I don’t cook much with fresh berries. They get consumed as-is and I cook and bake with frozen because frankly it’s cheaper.
How to Freeze Pancakes
Go ahead and make a double batch of these easy pancakes while you’re at it, and refrigerate or freeze the extra. Reheating them on busy weekday mornings is a great timesaver. Not as perfect as fresh, but I’ve never met a kid who would turn their nose up at homemade pancakes if their choice was leftover homemade or an Eggo.
To freeze pancakes, simply let them cool to room temperature before carefully stacking them in a freezer baggie. If you’re afraid the pancakes will get squished, first freeze them on a baking tray and then transfer them to a bag once they’re hard enough to stack.
How to Reheat Pancakes
The easiest way to reheat frozen pancakes is in a toaster or toaster oven. You can also microwave pancakes for 30-second intervals, but microwaved pancakes tend to be a little rubbery.
Tips for Making Buttermilk Strawberry Pancakes
If you want to use blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, a mixed berry blend, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, or another favorite fruit, feel free. Sprinkling in coconut flakes, chocolate chips, or other favorite add-in’s to the batter are fun twists. But I had sprinkles on the brain!
And if sprinkles aren’t your thing, you can leave them out of this buttermilk pancake recipe. These will still taste amazing as classic strawberry pancakes.
Also note that if you decide to use frozen strawberries, you don’t need to thaw them before sprinkling them onto the pancakes. You can dice them with a sharp knife (they’re softer than you’d think!) and add them to the pancakes while still cold.
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Buttermilk Strawberry Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- about 1 cup roughly chopped strawberries + additional for garnishing*
- about 1/3 cup sprinkles, divided
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, optional salt, and whisk to combine; set bowl aside.
- In a large measuring cup, add 1 cup buttermilk, egg, oil, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry, and mix until just moistened. Don’t overmix! Lumpy batter is what you’re looking for and it’ll be quite thick. If it seems too thick for your liking, add an additional splash of buttermilk (1 to 3 tablespoons). I used 1 cup plus about 2 tablespoons.
- Spray a large, non-stick skillet with cooking spray, and heat over medium-low to medium heat. Once skillet it hot, using a one-quarter cup measure, scoop batter into skillet. I make 3 pancakes at once. Sprinkle on about a dozen strawberries pieces to each pancake. Cook first side for about 3 minutes, or until underneath is golden and set.
- Right before you’re ready to flip the pancake over to cook the second side, sprinkle generously with sprinkles, at least 2 tablespoons per pancake. Flip carefully and cook second side until done and golden, about 3 minutes.
- Repeat process with remaining batter. Serve pancakes immediately with butter, jam, syrup, confectioners sugar, Strawberry Butter, Vanilla Maple Butter, or your favorite pancake topping.
- Batch can be doubled or tripled and extra pancakes can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat gently in the toaster, microwave, or over low heat in a skillet.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Strawberry Recipes:
The Best Strawberry Banana Bread — I couldn’t get enough of this super soft, moist bread that’s bursting with juicy strawberries in every bite.
Crustless Fresh Strawberry Pie — Somewhere in between pie, cake, and blondies is what you get with this FABULOUS recipe! Take advantage of those FRESH strawberries!
Strawberry Cream Cheese Shortbread Bars — The easy bars consist of a buttery shortbread crust that’s topped with a cream cheese and an almond extract flavored filling before frosting the bars and topping with strawberries.
Strawberry Layer Cake with Strawberry Frosting — This is an easy recipe that starts with cake mix that gets doctored up with strawberry gelatin and fresh strawberries.
Strawberry Custard Bars — These easy, one bowl, no mixer custard bars are perfect for your fresh strawberries. There’s a shortbread crust, topped with diced strawberries, before a custard filling is poured over the the top.
Strawberry Lemonade Bars — These bars are what you’d get if you crossed a crumble-topped strawberry pie with a lemon bar. They’re sweet from the strawberries with some tart lemon flavor that peeks through.
I just had to let you know I found your pineapple upside down cake and I tried it. It was so delicious and moist, my husband and grandparents said it was the best cake they ever had! Thanks for such a beautiful recipe. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and I loved the cake, now I am dying to try all of your buttermilk recipes.
What a wonderful comment & so glad you loved that cake! If you wanted to just copy/paste this comment of yours onto this post that corresponds with the cake, I bet it would be helpful for others to read – if your time permits, of course. Thanks for trying the cake!
wowwww..it looks allmost like a rainbow, so colourfull, delightful, fluffy and just good enough to have it in the morning, deliciousssss :D
These are so cute! I would normally skip over a pancake recipe because they’re so basic, but these pancakes are just so adorable I needed to read on! Strawberries are my favorite and sprinkles add the perfect touch.
thanks for reading on!
These are so cute! I want to make it a tradition to make special “birthday pancakes” for our kids as they get older and this looks like the perfect recipe. Thanks for sharing :)
These sound delicious
The strawberry and sprinkles pancakes are colorful, fun and looks delish! Was drooling over thsoe other recipes too! Yum! ttp://xobakingco.com/