Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Multigrain pancake mix

In our house, we LOVE having a pancake breakfast on Sunday mornings. I have been on a quest for a while to create my own multigrain pancake mix. Usually I buy this stuff, but I figured I could make my own version that would be cheaper, yummier, and just as nutritious. After testing the recipe, David said they tasted better than the storebought mix.

Here are the measurements for making a large amount of mix:

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 cups oat bran
1/2 cup milled flaxseed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt (use less if using table salt)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

This makes about 10 cups of mix. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (flaxseed and wheat germ need to be refrigerated, and whole wheat flour goes bad faster than white flour).

To make pancake batter:

1 and 1/4 cups of mix makes enough pancakes for the 3 of us. For every 1 and 1/4 cups of mix, add:

1 cup milk or buttermilk
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil or melted butter

Do not over-mix...combine until just blended (and still a little lumpy). If the mixture is too thick or too loose, add a little bit of milk or additional dry mix to get the right consistency.

If you don't want to commit to 10 cups of pancake mix until you try it, here is the scaled-down version to make one recipe...

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons oat bran
1 tablespoon milled flaxseed
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 and 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Add the same wet ingredients as listed above.

They definitely have that multigrainy taste, so if you are not a fan of whole wheat and grains, they may not be for you. We try to eat whole wheat versions of everything (bread, pasta, crackers, etc.) when available, so the pancakes are perfect for us.

The wheat germ has lots of vitamin E, folic acid, complex carbohydrates, and protein. Milled flaxseed contains Omega-3's, protein, and fiber. Oat bran and whole wheat flour are both high in protein and fiber, and oat bran is high in soluble fiber which can lower cholesterol. Plus there's enough white flour that you won't end up with cardboard discs. If I have any over-ripe bananas at the end of the week, I like to mash one up and add it to the batter along with some nuts or mini chocolate chips...YUMMY.

5 comments:

Kate said...

I can't wait to make these! My husband loves his whole grains and this would please him. We hadn't really found a pancake mix that wasn't completely rocks and twigs or cardboard discs (so true!!), so thanks!

shoeaddict said...

My mom and I were just talking about grain and nut pancakes. How perfect! Thank you for this.

loni said...

This is awesome, Dana! I have been wanting to make my own pancake mix for a while and just never did it. I am eager to try out yours. We like to make pancakes around here on Saturday mornings as well, especially with fresh blueberries.

mamashine said...

Also, how on earth did you figure out the measurements? Was there a lot of trial and error, or did you just throw it all in and hope it tasted good the first time? I am very nervous about creativity and branching out!

Anonymous said...

Kelli, I am SO not a recipe creator either...especially when it is something where measurements have to be precise or they won't work right.

So I cheated a little. I used Alton Brown's pancake mix recipe to get the ratio of flour to baking powder to egg/milk, etc. I kept the total amount of flour the same, but instead of all white flour, I made changes within that amount.

The first time I made them, it was major twigs and cardboard. So I upped the white flour a bit and reduced the whole wheat. So it did take a little testing, but not tons of trial and error.

Once I had the proportions right I was set...and you know how I love crunching numbers to scale everything up and down!