Recipes › Breakfast & brunch› Brown butter cardamom pancakes
Breakfast & brunch · Easy · Serves 4

Brown butter cardamom pancakes

Brown butter and a small pinch of cardamom turn a Saturday-morning stack of pancakes into something cozy and a little Nordic. Easy enough for a slow weekend.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-06
A stack of four golden brown butter cardamom pancakes on a small cream-speckled stoneware plate with a pat of butter melting on top, a slow drizzle of maple syrup, a scatter of fresh blueberries and raspberries, a small pinch of flaky salt, and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel beside it on a white marble counter.
Prep
10 min
Cook
20 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
easy

Pancakes are a Saturday-morning thing in this kitchen. I wasn't always good at them, honestly. They used to come out flat, or strangely chewy, and I'd quietly hand mine off to whoever wasn't paying attention. The fix turned out to be small: brown the butter first, and slip in a pinch of cardamom.

Now this is the stack I make most weekends. Tender, a little nutty, a little warm. The cardamom is the kind of detail my grandmother would have approved of, and the brown butter pulls the whole thing toward something that tastes like more effort than it really is.

“Brown the butter, slip in a pinch of cardamom, and a stack of pancakes turns into a Saturday morning worth getting up for.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01Brown butter does most of the work. A small step that makes the pancakes taste like more effort than they really are.
  • 02Cardamom is the Nordic detail. Just enough warmth to feel like a real recipe, not a mix.
  • 03Tender, slightly chewy, never tough. Buttermilk and a short rest are the trick.
  • 04One bowl for the dry, one for the wet, a skillet, a stack. Pancakes shouldn't be complicated.
A hand in a white linen button-down with rolled sleeves pouring pale pancake batter from a small cream-speckled stoneware pitcher into a hot cast iron skillet on a lit gas stovetop, the blue flame visible under the cast iron grates, with a forming pancake spreading in the pan as the first bubbles begin to break the surface. A small cream-speckled stoneware bowl of melted brown butter and a smaller bowl of green cardamom pods with a wooden spoon sit on the marble counter in front, with a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel to the right.
Pour about a quarter cup of batter per pancake. The first bubbles tell you it's time to flip.
Ingredients

For the brown butter

  • 5 Tbspunsalted butter

For the pancakes

  • 1¼ cupsall-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbspsugar
  • 1 tspbaking powder
  • ½ tspbaking soda
  • ½ tspground cardamom
  • ¼ tspkosher salt
  • 1¼ cupsbuttermilk
  • 1large egg
  • 1 tspvanilla extract

To serve

  • a small dollop per plateskyr or thick Greek yogurt
  • blueberries, raspberries, sliced strawberriesfresh berries
  • pure maple syrup
  • a small pat of butter (optional) and a pinch of flaky salt
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Brown the butter.
    Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Swirl as it foams. Watch it go from yellow to golden to a deep amber, with little brown specks at the bottom and a smell like toasted nuts. Pull it off the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl. Cool 5 minutes.
  2. 02
    Whisk the dry, mix the wet.
    In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. In a second bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla, then whisk in the cooled brown butter. A little of the browned solids in there is the whole point.
  3. 03
    Combine, gently.
    Pour the wet into the dry. Fold a few times with a spatula. A few small lumps are fine. Let the batter rest 5 minutes while the skillet heats.
  4. 04
    Cook the pancakes.
    Heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-low. Add a small pat of butter. When it foams, scoop about ¼ cup of batter per pancake into the skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles form on top and the edges look set. Flip and cook another 1 to 2 minutes, until golden. Keep warm on a plate while you make the rest.
    Near-overhead view of a pair of hands in white linen button-down sleeves rolled to mid-forearm working at a cast iron skillet on a lit gas stovetop, one steadying the skillet handle with a folded cloth while the other slides a thin slotted spatula under a golden pancake to flip it. A second pancake cooks flat in the skillet beside it with the first bubbles forming on top. The cast iron grates of the gas burner are visible around the skillet, a small ceramic ramekin of melted brown butter sits on the marble counter at the upper-left edge, and a striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel is folded next to it.
    Slide a thin spatula under, lift, flip. The first one is always the test pancake.
  5. 05
    Stack and serve.
    Stack three or four pancakes on a plate. Top with a small dollop of skyr, a handful of berries, a slow pour of maple, a pat of butter if you want one, and a tiny pinch of flaky salt. Eat slowly. Coffee helps.
Macro close-up of a light oak wooden fork lifting a bite of golden pancake from a cream-speckled stoneware plate, showing the tender airy crumb in cross-section, with a small pat of butter melting on the stack behind, fresh blueberries scattered on the plate, and maple syrup pooled at the base.
A note from Anna

If your batter looks thick after resting, splash in a tablespoon of milk and stir. Different flours soak up liquid differently and pancake batter wants to be pourable. Keep the heat medium-low. Pancakes that cook too fast go dark on the outside before the inside has a chance to catch up.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    Strong drip coffee
    Or a cardamom latte if you're feeling extra Nordic.
  • ·02
    A small bowl of berries
    Mixed berries, lightly mashed with a fork to make a quick syrup.
  • ·03
    A side of skyr
    Tangy and thick, balances the maple. Plain Greek yogurt is great too.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Pancakes keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 days. The brown butter notes hold up well.

Reheat: A 350°F oven for 4 to 5 minutes on a sheet pan, so the pancakes don't steam. A toaster oven also works. Skip the microwave; they go rubbery.

Make ahead: Mix the dry ingredients the night before. Whisk the wet (minus the brown butter) and refrigerate. Brown the butter, combine, and cook in the morning.

Freezer: Cool the pancakes completely, then freeze in a single layer on a sheet pan. Transfer to a freezer bag once frozen. Reheat from frozen at 375°F for 8 to 10 minutes.

Recipe card

Brown butter cardamom pancakes

Brown butter and a small pinch of cardamom turn a Saturday-morning stack of pancakes into something cozy and a little Nordic. Easy enough for a slow weekend.

Prep
10 min
Cook
20 min
Serves
4
Total
30 min
Ingredients
  • 5 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp ground cardamom
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • 1¼ cups buttermilk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • a small dollop per plate skyr or thick Greek yogurt
  • blueberries, raspberries, sliced strawberries fresh berries
  • pure maple syrup
  • a small pat of butter (optional) and a pinch of flaky salt
Method (short version)
  1. 01Brown the butter.
  2. 02Whisk the dry, mix the wet.
  3. 03Combine, gently.
  4. 04Cook the pancakes.
  5. 05Stack and serve.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

If you liked this

More from the weeknight table.

A 9x13-inch parchment-lined ceramic baking dish on a white marble counter, holding a finished spinach and feta egg bake: a thick fluffy custard cooked through, deep green wilted spinach folded throughout, generous crumbles of white feta scattered across the surface and browned at the edges, a snow of finely chopped fresh dill, sliced scallions, and a few cracks of black pepper. One corner has been cut into a tidy 3-inch square and slightly lifted. Beside the dish: a small cream-speckled stoneware plate holding one cut square, a small ceramic dish of more crumbled feta, a small bunch of fresh dill, a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel, and a halved lemon. Soft mid-morning kitchen light.
new
Breakfast50 min
Cottage cheese spinach and feta egg bake
A make-ahead breakfast bake with eggs, cottage cheese, wilted spinach, and feta. Forty minutes in the oven, six servings, and quietly 22 grams of protein per slice.
A clear glass jar of finished overnight oats on a white marble counter, the contents in soft layers: a thick pale-cream oat-and-skyr base flecked with small dark cardamom and visible mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, flax) folded throughout, topped with a generous spoonful of fresh dark blueberries, a small handful of raspberries, a drizzle of golden amber maple syrup pooling at the edges, an extra small handful of mixed seeds scattered on top, and a tiny snow of more ground cardamom dusting the surface. Beside the jar: 3 more matching glass jars also filled with overnight oats and ready to go (lined up like a Sunday-night meal prep), a small ceramic dish of mixed seeds with a tiny wooden spoon, a small wooden honey dipper, a small lemon, a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel. Soft Sunday-evening kitchen light.
new
Breakfast5 min
Maple cardamom overnight oats with seeds
Five-minute overnight oats with skyr, maple, cardamom, and a generous spoonful of mixed seeds for crunch. Twenty-two grams of protein in a jar, ready by morning.