Whole Grain Pancake Mix

Let me tell you about my perfect Sunday morning. I’d wake up while the rest of the house is still asleep. I’d make myself a pot of the strongest French press coffee known to man, then curl up on the couch and watch the sun come up out our living room windows while reading a good book. There would definitely be dog snuggles involved. And maybe kitty snuggles—depending on her mood.

Then, once the rest of the family is up, we’d turn on NPR, and then Juni and I would get started making fluffy, dense, nutty whole grain pancakes slathered in butter and dripping with our own homemade syrup. Because Sunday mornings are made for pancakes.

Sunday morning pancakes became such a routine in our family that a few years ago, I decided to streamline the work and started making my own homemade whole grain pancake mix. I prepare the mix in large batches, freeze it, and then the morning we want pancakes, it is as simple as mixing together one cup of mix, one egg, and one cup of buttermilk.

Pre-making the mix saves a boatload of time (so much time that pancakes can even become a weekday morning thing), and it saves a boatload of money—no more shelling out $5 a box for whole grain pancake mix that makes barely more than two servings.

I do recommend using buttermilk or soured milk when you’re making your pancakes from my mix. It adds such a wonderful texture and flavor to the final flapjacks! Don’t usually have buttermilk kicking around in your house? No worries, me either. Here’s a couple of tricks:

• You can sour milk (cow’s, goat’s, almond, coconut—any milk!) easily by taking a scant cup of milk and adding in one tablespoon vinegar (white vinegar works, but I prefer apple cider vinegar). Let it sit for about five minutes, and then—boom!—an excellent buttermilk substitute.
• If you do happen to purchase buttermilk, get the biggest container you can find and then freeze it. I put one cup of buttermilk into plastic freezer bags or wide mouth pint Mason jars (which are freezable) and freeze. Once they are solid, you can stack them in your freezer and they are ready for whenever you want to make pancakes. They defrost easily in the microwave or a bowl of hot water—or if you’re on top of things, you can take one out the night before you’re going to make pancakes and defrost it in the fridge.

Alright, back to the whole grain pancake mix! The base of the mix comes from ground up oats and whole wheat flour (with a touch of white flour). The mix results in a fluffy thick pancake that I absolutely adore!

When you’ve made your mix, store in an airtight container (again, we use Mason jars), and it’ll live indefinitely in your freezer. Each recipe of the mix makes 10 cups, which turns into two big brunch-sized servings or four smaller servings.

Also, you can definitely tie a bow around it and give it as a gift (or serve up the pancakes as Santa pancakes for the holidays!). Who doesn’t like the gift of pancakes? Enjoy!