How to make fluffy buttermilk pancakes from scratch

Weekend mornings across Australia have a particular rhythm, and a tall stack of pancakes has quietly earned its place in the ritual. In Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, the long brunch is practically a national pastime, and cafe menus from Surry Hills to Fitzroy almost always include some version of a fluffy stack. Still, the homemade version — made properly, with real buttermilk and a little patience — often leaves the cafe plate looking a bit sad by comparison.

The secret is buttermilk, and Australians are spoiled for choice when it comes to finding it. Cultured buttermilk sits in the dairy aisle of every Coles and Woolworths, alongside reliable local names like Farmers Union, Norco, Barambah Organics and the Pauls house label. The gentle acidity does two important jobs at once: it tenderises the gluten so the crumb stays soft, and it reacts with bicarbonate of soda to create the lift that turns a heavy pancake into one with proper height and a golden, lightly crusted edge.

Making a batch from scratch is also a forgiving way to flex your cooking muscles. The batter comes together in one bowl in under ten minutes, and once you've sorted out the temperature of your pan, the rest is mostly about restraint. Flipping too early is the most common sin, and a heavy hand with the flour is the second. This walkthrough covers every step, from weighing your flour to plating up a stack worthy of a Sunday.

What goes into a proper buttermilk pancake

The list is short, and every ingredient earns its place. Plain flour gives the cleanest flavour, though a teaspoon of wholemeal stirred through adds a nutty note if that's your preference. Caster sugar sweetens the batter without weighing it down, fine salt sharpens everything, and a single egg provides structure. Buttermilk is the non-negotiable — full-fat, cultured, and cold from the fridge. Melted butter, just warm enough to stay liquid, brings richness without greasiness. Finally, bicarbonate of soda and a little cream of tartar handle the rise.

Quantities matter here, more than most home cooks realise. A 250 ml cup of plain flour scooped straight from the bag can weigh anywhere from 120 to 150 grams depending on how packed it is, and that variance is the difference between a tender pancake and a tough, bouncy one. This is exactly why weighing makes such a difference in baking, and the same logic applies to pancakes. A small digital scale is one of the best investments you can make for a weekend cook who wants reliable results.

As a rough guide for a stack that feeds three hungry people, you'll need 250 g of plain flour, 30 g of caster sugar, 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, half a teaspoon of bicarate, 1 large egg, 500 ml of buttermilk, and 50 g of melted unsalted butter. If you're scaling up for a long table — think footy final morning, or a house full of visiting rellies — keep the proportions and the batter will scale beautifully.

Mixing the batter the right way

The biggest mistake people make with pancake batter is overmixing. A few streaks are perfectly fine — they will hydrate as the batter rests. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, whisk the wet ingredients in a separate jug, then pour the wet into the dry and fold gently with a spatula until just combined. Lumps are welcome. A smooth, glossy batter is usually a sign you've gone too far, and the resulting pancakes will be flatter and chewier than you'd like.

Resting the batter is the second-most-important step, and skipping it is the most common reason home cooks end up disappointed. Ten minutes on the bench gives the flour time to absorb the liquid fully and gives the bicarate time to start working. The batter will look a little puffier and slightly bubbly when you come back to it. If it's sitting like thick porridge, whisk in a splash more buttermilk until it drops lazily off the spoon.

Sometimes buttermilk is hard to find, especially in smaller towns, or you might want a dairy-free version for a friend. The comparison below covers the most reliable stand-ins and how each one performs.

Substitute	Ratio to 1 cup buttermilk	Best for	What to watch for
Whole milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice	1 cup milk, 1 tbsp acid	Everyday use	Needs 5 min to curdle
Plain Greek yoghurt + milk	3/4 cup yoghurt, 1/4 cup milk	Extra-thick pancakes	May need extra splash of milk
Kefir	1 cup straight	Very tangy result	Slightly thinner batter
Soy or oat milk + vinegar	1 cup milk, 1 tbsp vinegar	Dairy-free option	Add a little extra fat

The general rule is the more acidic the substitute, the more lift you'll get, so don't be afraid to lean in if you're using yoghurt or kefir.

Cooking on the stovetop

The pan matters. A heavy-based cast iron skillet or a quality non-stick fry pan around 25 cm wide is ideal for home cooking. A restaurant-style crepe pan is too thin and gives you hot spots, while a heavy griddle works brilliantly if you're cooking for a crowd. Whatever you use, give it a few minutes to come up to temperature over medium-low heat before you start.

Test the heat with a few drops of water — they should skate across the surface and evaporate in a couple of seconds. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks; too cold and you won't get the golden, lacy edge. For crispy pancake edges, the heat needs to stay at medium-low and the butter should be wiped thin across the pan with kitchen paper before each batch.

Ladle roughly 60 ml of batter per pancake into the pan. Cook for two to three minutes, until bubbles appear across the surface and the edges look set and a little dry. Flip once, gently, with a wide spatula, and cook for another minute or so on the second side. Slide onto a warm plate and keep covered with a clean tea towel while you cook the rest. Stacking them directly on a cold plate is the fastest way to lose that fresh-off-the-pan crispness.

Toppings worth waking up for

A bare pancake with a drizzle of maple syrup is the Australian default, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it — pure Canadian maple is easy to find in the international aisle of any Coles or Woolworths. But if you want to push past the obvious, there are a few combinations worth trying, using ingredients that are easy to track down locally.

Quick topping ideas for a lazy weekend stack:

• Sliced banana, a handful of toasted macadamias, and a generous pour of golden syrup
• Fresh berries — strawberries from Stanthorpe, blueberries from Woolgoolga, or whatever looks best at the farmers' market — with a dollop of thick Greek yoghurt
• Sliced peach or mango in the warmer months, with a crack of black pepper and a slick of local honey
• Crispy bacon, a poached egg, and a little grated cheddar for a savoury twist that works surprisingly well with the tang of the buttermilk

Honey is worth a special mention. Tasmanian leatherwood and manuka honeys are available through most greengrocers and farmers' markets, and they bring a deeper, more complex sweetness than supermarket blends. A small jar keeps for months in the pantry and turns a basic stack into something that feels a bit special.

What goes wrong and how to fix it

Even with the best intentions, pancakes can misbehave. The good news is that almost every pancake problem has a clear cause and a straightforward fix. Flat, dense pancakes usually mean the bicarate was old — check the use-by date and replace it every six months — or the batter sat too long after mixing. If you know you'll be distracted, only mix the dry ingredients in advance and combine the wet and dry just before cooking. Rubber-y pancakes point to overmixing, so aim for a batter that still looks a bit shaggy. Burnt outsides with raw middles mean the heat is too high; drop it down and cook for longer.

A few habits worth keeping in mind:

• Measure flour by weight, not by volume, for consistent results
• Let the batter rest, even if it's only five minutes
• Use medium-low heat and resist the urge to crank it up
• Flip only once, and only when the bubbles have set

A proper stack of buttermilk pancakes is one of those small weekend luxuries that asks very little and delivers a lot. Once you've got the rhythm down — weighed flour, rested batter, patient heat — you'll find yourself reaching for the mixing bowl more often than you'd expect. And the second batch always comes out better than the first, which is half the fun of cooking from scratch in the first place.