Yield: 14 pancakes

Baking Soda Instead of Baking Powder for Pancakes (Grams)

A soda-only buttermilk pancake recipe that swaps baking soda in for the baking powder, with US measures and grams, a liquid check, sourced ratios side by side and sodium per pancake.

Prep Time10 minutes

Cook Time20 minutes

rest the batter15 minutes

Total Time45 minutes

Ingredients

Soda-only buttermilk pancakes

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour, 240 g (King Arthur); spoon in and level
• 3 tbsp (35 g) granulated sugar, 35 g (King Arthur)
• 1 1/4 tsp (5.75 g) baking soda, food-grade, aluminum-free, 5.75 g at USDA 4.6 g per teaspoon; level, not heaped
• 1/2 tsp (3 g) table salt, 3 g; level
• 1 large egg, 1 large egg
• 2 cups (454 g) low-fat cultured buttermilk, 454 g; this is the only liquid and the only acid
• 2 tbsp (28 g) melted salted butter, 28 g; or 2 tbsp (25 g) vegetable oil, sodium not counted
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional; no sourced gram weight

Instructions

1. Whisk the dry mix. Whisk 2 cups (240 g) flour, 3 tablespoons (35 g) sugar, 1 1/4 teaspoons (5.75 g) baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) salt in a large bowl until no streaks or specks of soda remain.
2. Mix the wet ingredients. In a second bowl, whisk 1 large egg, 2 cups (454 g) buttermilk, 2 tablespoons (28 g) melted butter and the vanilla, if using. Add no other liquid.
3. Combine. Pour the wet mix into the dry and stir until the flour is wet. Stop there, since a few lumps are expected.
4. Rest the batter. Let the batter sit uncovered for 15 minutes, as King Arthur does. Live Eat Learn rests its soda-only batter for at least 5 minutes, so the sources disagree.
5. Cook until bubbles form. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium to low heat, the setting Live Eat Learn gives for its soda-only batter. Pour the batter in rounds about 4 inches wide, cook until bubbles form, flip and cook the second side. No sourced pan temperature or minutes per side.
6. Keep warm and serve. Keep finished pancakes warm in a 200 F oven, as Live Eat Learn does, until you have the whole batch of 14 to 16.

Notes

Our adaptation, untested. No one at SodaRecipe has cooked this exact formula. It is King Arthur's buttermilk pancake quantities with the 1 teaspoon of baking powder removed and 1/4 teaspoon of soda added, the per-teaspoon swap that Zestful Kitchen and Flavorful Home both give.

Soda dose is disputed. Kitchen Savvy gives about 1/2 teaspoon per cup of buttermilk, so 1 teaspoon for 2 cups. This card uses 1 1/4 teaspoons (our math). Live Eat Learn uses 2 teaspoons for 2 cups. Zestful Kitchen's soda-alone line would give 1 1/3 teaspoons. We did not average them.

Yield and time: 14 to 16 four-inch pancakes, 10 minutes hands-on and 45 minutes total are King Arthur's figures for the powder version. The card shows 14, the low end, so the per-pancake sodium is the higher figure. Cook time of 20 minutes is our subtraction (45 minus 10 minus the 15 minute rest).

Sodium is our own calculation, not a published figure: soda 1,576 mg, salt 1,164 mg, buttermilk 672 mg, salted butter about 180 mg, egg about 71 mg and flour under 10 mg, about 3,670 mg for the batch, or about 262 mg per pancake at 14 (about 11% of 2,300 mg) and about 230 mg at 16.

Nutrition values are our estimate from USDA FoodData Central records for all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, a large egg, low-fat cultured buttermilk, salted butter, baking soda and table salt, divided by 14. Saturated fat, sugar and fiber are not listed, and vanilla is left out.