Homemade Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix

In general, I prefer to make food from scratch.  It usually tastes better than commercially prepared food or mixes and it only takes a little bit longer.  One exception is when we're camping.  I buy "just add water" pancake mix for convenience out in the woods.  Because there aren't any refrigerators or dishwashers out there.

We were camping this past weekend, and I discovered as I was packing the food (2 hours before departure) that we didn't have enough "just add water" pancake mix left.  Oops.  Guess I should have checked that a little bit earlier in the week.  With no breakfast plan B available, I started looking for a pancake mix recipe online.

I decided to make this one.  But we were completely out of all-purpose flour (the Friendship Bread.  It disappears the flour.  I bought 10 pounds today and expect it to be gone within less than a month).  No worries.  We had plenty of whole wheat flour.  We had a container of what I thought was dry milk in the cupboard, so I was good to go.  Good thing I tasted it before putting it in the mix--turns out it was powdered lemonade!  Note to self: label, label, label.  Fortunately, I had some dry buttermilk in the freezer, leftover from this recipe.  Could anything else go wrong?   I sure hope not. 

Nothing else went wrong and the family loved the pancakes.  Hubby loved that all he had to do was add a few things to a ziplock bag, mix, and cook.  They turned out light, tender, and flavorful.

The beauty of this pancake mix is if you prefer to cook from scratch, like I do, you really are cooking from scratch.  You add the ingredients together and know exactly what's going in to the mix, but you also have the convenience of being able to get homemade pancake batter ready to go in a matter of seconds.  It's the best of both worlds--perfect to have on hand for rushed weekday mornings.  Or camping trips.

Let's get started.

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Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix

5 c. white whole wheat flour* (substitute regular whole wheat or all-purpose flour if desired)
1 1/4 c. dry buttermilk (in the baking aisle near the dry milk)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. baking powder
1 T. salt

Mix everything together with a whisk.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator**

To prepare the pancakes:
Add 1 c. water, 1 egg, and 2 T oil to a scant 2 c. of mix.  Cook on greased surface over medium-high heat 1-2 minutes per side until golden brown.


* Find white whole wheat flour in the baking aisle near the other flours--it costs the same as regular whole wheat flour but it's made from white spring wheat and looks and tastes lighter.  If you don't like whole wheat baked goods because of the heavier texture, try white whole wheat flour.  You get the goodness of whole grains without the denseness of regular whole wheat.  You might not even be able to tell the difference between white whole wheat and just plain ol' white--my family couldn't.

**  I store mine in the fridge because my dry buttermilk says to store in the fridge, but it was just fine unrefrigerated for the 2 days we had it in our food bin before preparing it.