homemade whole grain pancake mix

Living with an early-rising toddler, breakfast in our house is a pretty routine affair. There’s only so much variation and prep I can manage before I get some caffeine into my system (why hasn’t someone invented a combination alarm clock and coffee maker? Coffee ready to go at my bedside — I’d be all over that.)

So, our options for a while have rotated between oatmeal, cereal with fruit, granola/yogurt, and sometimes scrambled eggs. Boring, I know. I longed to add pancakes to the rotation — they are one of my very favorite breakfasts — and so I made it my mission to find a pancake recipe that would be easy enough to make on weekday mornings before work. (Preferably something multigrain; white flour pancakes just don’t do it for me like they used to…)

And this has been my mission for the past year or so. I tried and loved Deb’s recipe, but still preferred something I could make ahead. I lingered for a few months on Heidi’s pancakes from Super Natural Everyday — a worthy contender, and I love her inclusion of barley flour — but I wasn’t always crazy about how the pancakes came out when I made the batter the night before. I tried a few more that weren’t even worth mentioning here, and was getting discouraged.

Then, my dear husband gave me King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking for my birthday, and let me tell you — I hit the pancake JACKPOT. One of the first recipes in the book is for this Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix, and it has been the answer to my pancake prayers! Designed to make ahead, a mix of whole wheat and oats, not too sweet, and ready to eat in about 15 minutes. Brilliant.

Over the months, I’ve fine-tuned it to what we usually have in our pantry and fridge (i.e. yogurt instead of buttermilk, quick-cooking oats instead of pulsing whole rolled oats — which, I know, doesn’t take long but I’m often in maximum efficiency mode these days.) I mix up a big batch — 10 cups worth — of the mix and store it in the freezer. When we’re ready for pancakes, I take out a cup of mix and stir it together with an egg, milk and yogurt (Miss A usually  helps  me with that part.) While the pancakes cook, I make my coffee. It’s now a routine.

We love these pancakes with a little butter and some good maple syrup (Miss A and B’s preference) or strawberry freezer jam that I made last summer (my favorite.) I sometimes add chopped up fruit to the batter, or a handful of grated vegetables to make savory pancakes for lunch or dinner. I even gave the mix as gifts to friends and family for Christmas — yes, I am proselytizing this recipe!

These pancakes have become a Friday morning routine in our house, and I hope you, dear readers, will love them as much as we do!

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Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

For the Mix:

Ingredients

4 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned or rolled oats
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Grind the oats in a food processor until they’re chopped fine but not a powder [Amy’s note: I have actually skipped this step a few times and just used rolled oats, not ground. The resulting pancakes are a little more textured, but still very good.]

Combine the flours, oats, and all other dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on slow speed, then drizzle in the oil while the mixer is running. Mix until thoroughly incorporated (you should be able to squeeze a bit between  your fingers and it should just barely hold together.)

Store in an airtight container for 2 weeks at room temperature, or indefinitely in the freezer (I keep it in a big ziptop bag.)

For the Pancakes:

Ingredients

1 cup homemade mix
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 egg

Directions

Stir the pancake mix together with the milk, yogurt and egg. [Amy’s note: King Arthur Flour recommends you let the mix sit for 20 minutes so that grains can soak up all the liquid before cooking the pancakes; I usually only do 10 minutes and they’re great.] Spoon the batter in 1/4-cupfuls onto your greased griddle or pan; when the edges look dry and bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip the pancakes and cook another 2 minutes or so. Serve warm.

Makes 10 cups of mix, enough for 50 to 80 pancakes

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