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Pancakes with soda and without yeast

Yeast-Free Pancakes with Baking Soda

Super simple, super quick, super tasty — perfect for any day! These yeast-free baking-soda pancakes come together in 20 minutes. They make a great breakfast the whole family will love. Another nice thing about this recipe: the batter is made without eggs!

Natalia Tsybulskaya

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Kefir

300

Baking soda

0.5

Sugar

Salt

Flour

Vegetable oil

100

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 9 % 4 g

Fats 42 % 19 g

Carbohydrates 49 % 22 g

269 kcal

GI: 10 / 0 / 90

Cooking method

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1:

How do you fry up yeast-free baking-soda pancakes? Gather all your ingredients. Use kefir of any fat content, though the pancakes will taste richer with fuller-fat kefir. I like to use a lower-grade wheat flour. It has a slightly cream color and, to my mind, is great for all kinds of baking like this. But use whatever flour you prefer.
Step 2:

Warm the kefir first so it just barely "curdles." You can heat it on the stove or in the microwave. Pour the kefir into a deep bowl where you'll mix the batter. Reach for a big bowl right away, since the mixture will expand a lot.
Step 3:

Add the baking soda to the kefir and stir well.
Step 4:

Stir the sugar into the kefir and add a little salt. If you like — especially if you're cooking for kids — you can add some flavorings: a teaspoon of vanilla sugar or a pinch of vanilla, and a little ground cinnamon would be nice here too.
Step 5:

Stir everything together. The kefir will start to bubble, and the mixture will grow noticeably in volume.
Step 6:

Add the flour in batches. Keep in mind you may need more or less flour than I do — go by the consistency of the batter.
Step 7:

For baked goods, I always recommend sifting the flour. Sifting aerates it, which means a lighter, airier finished product. Always sift your flour!
Step 8:

Mix the batter well so there are no lumps. It will be fairly thick, about the consistency of full-fat sour cream.
Step 9:

Get the pan ready. For pancakes I prefer a cast-iron skillet, but you can use a ceramic one or any other pan — ideally nonstick. Pour the vegetable oil into the pan and heat it well. Spoon a little batter into the pan and fry over low heat for about 3–5 minutes, then gently flip.
Step 10:

Fry the pancakes on the other side for about 2–3 minutes. By the way, you don't have to pour oil into the pan — you can just brush it with a little oil instead. Serve the pancakes with sour cream, condensed milk, or jam. Enjoy!

Whether you can swap baking powder for baking soda, how to add each so your baking comes out fluffy, how to avoid an unpleasant soda aftertaste, and much more — all worth reading up on when choosing between baking powder and baking soda.
Be prepared to use a little more or less flour than the recipe calls for. Go by the batter consistency you're after rather than an exact amount. To avoid mistakes, read up on flour and its properties!
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying. Every oil is only good up to a certain temperature — its smoke point — beyond which it begins to burn and form harmful compounds, including carcinogens. Most unrefined oils have a low smoke point; they hold a lot of unfiltered organic particles that scorch quickly. Refined oils stand up to heat better and have a higher smoke point. Whenever you cook in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, reach for a high-smoke-point oil. The most common ones are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.