Late to the bread bake

I was not one of the many who started baking bread during the pandemic lockdown.

- MAGGIE WHITE

It wasn’t that the idea lacked appeal, it was just that I was busy baking cookies, muffins, scones and brownies. (Lest you begin worrying about my apparently gluttonous and sugary diet, I owned a café and bookshop at the time, and we offered a home delivery service while the shop was temporarily closed due to COVID-19).

Quite recently, I was gifted some sourdough starter, and it’s quickly become clear what all the bread-baking fuss was about. The friend who gave me the starter offered it with the suggestion that I try making pancakes, as they were second to none in her estimation. We often make pancakes on the weekends at my house, and I love the recipe I’ve honed over time—shared in this column a while back. Well, this recipe might just be better.

The main differences with the addition of the starter lie in the density of the cakes and in how well they hold up in the refrigerator as leftovers. The sourdough pancakes are thicker—not weighty, just more robust. And they are much better than the fluffy orginal recipe when it comes to reheating.