Breakfasts at the SixFiguresUnder household have not been the same since we decided to get serious about paying off our student loan debt. We love cold cereal and used to eat it regularly. Though my max price was just $1.50 a box, it adds up fast when you have big eaters. Our three little ones are ages 5 and under, but they can eat breakfast like there’s no tomorrow!
Oatmeal and pancakes have become two of our breakfast staples. We still have cold cereal on Sundays as a special treat.
I started making pancakes from scratch because my husband thinks the “just add water” boxed pancake mixes taste like cardboard. In an effort to cut down preparation time (I like my sleep), I made a mix of all the dry ingredients. I just add milk and eggs and maybe a special mix-in.
Pancake making is now a breeze.
I buy wheat in 25 lb bags and grind it when I make bread. I fill up several ice cream buckets each time I grind so I will have flour for other recipes throughout the week. This recipe should work fine with white flour too.
WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKE MIX
- 12 c whole wheat flour
- 1 1/3 c sugar
- 4 T baking powder
- 2 T baking soda
- 2 T cinnamon
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container. I have a designated pancake mix container with the recipe to make the pancakes attached.
WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES
- 1 c. pancake mix (from recipe above)
- 1 egg
- 3/4 c milk
For each cup of pancake mix used, you will get 6-8 pancakes. For my family, I usually use 4 cups of pancake mix, 4 eggs, and 3 cups of milk.
Make it exciting with MIX-INS. Add however much you like. Some ideas are:
- Bananas– Add mashed banana (about 1/2 to 1 banana per cup of mix)
- Chocolate Chips– I find the mini chips make less of a mess on my little ones’ faces
- Apples– Chopped small
- Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries– They will make the batter fun colors too!
We get a little creative with TOPPINGS.
- Syrup– Our favorite is Homemade Blackberry Syrup.
- Butter and Powdered Sugar– Yummy and sweet and less messy than syrup
- Applesauce— home canned
- Pear Sauce– also home canned
- Plum Sauce— We discovered this wonder food when someone gave us all the plums off their tree
- Peaches or Pears– I can them in halves. We like to them on top of pancakes.
Do you eat pancakes regularly? What do you do to make them more exciting?
You’ll Also Enjoy:
Lauren says
We love this pancake mix! We have breakfast for dinner almost every Sunday night. We’ve tried it with regular flour, whole wheat and mixed flours and all have worked great! We’ve done flax-eggs when we didn’t have eggs at home and we’ve tried it with different spices (pumpkin spice pancakes and super cinnamon are our favorites). I love that I know what is going into the mix and that there are no chemicals or weird preservatives! Thanks for a simple, classic, delicious recipe! We’ve been using this recipe for over 2 years now and LOVE it!
Kelli Jo Kelley says
i love my pancakes with chocolate chips, and peanut butter on top, along with the syrup and a big glass of milk!
Stephanie says
Mmm! We love chocolate chips in them too! 🙂 I’ve never tried peanut butter and syrup together though!
Natalie says
WOW we tried this for a late breakky this morning YARMY!!! A winner with all of us 🙂 We used powdered milk and it was perfect. Everyone wants it for breakky tomorrow with added pureed frozen berries. I NEVER cook, but your simple recipes are making me look like a hero to my family all while saving lots of $$$. Thanks Stephanie
Stephanie says
Ha ha! I’m glad you were a hero for your family! You made me smile Natalie!
Tracey says
Question: if I was to use powdered milk/buttermilk in the bulk mix so I can use water instead of fresh milk, how much would I need? Or, how many batches is in the bulk mix, so I can figure it out based on the powdered milk brand I use? This recipe looks great and I’ll definitely be using it 🙂
Stephanie says
Hi Tracey! The recipe above makes about 14 cups of mix. Since each cup of mix requires 3/4 cup of milk, that would be about 10.5 cups of milk to make the entire mix. So add enough powdered milk to make 10.5 cups of milk to the milk, then you can use water when you use your pancake mix! Great idea! 🙂 We often mix up powdered milk to use when we make pancakes, but I’ve never added the powder to the mix before!
Susan says
I made up my first batch of this mix last night and made some pancakes for lunch today and I have to say that the taste was fantastic! I added some fresh blueberries to them. It is so handy for me with my large family because my older teens and young adults are often working but I still have 5 younger ones at home so I can tailor the batch based on how many are here to eat. Thanks so much for posting this — for our family, this is a keeper!
Stephanie says
I’m glad you liked it Susan! Fresh blueberries would be a wonderful addition! I love that it’s so easy to adjust the batch size too. These pancakes are much more filling than the boxed mixes too.
Susan says
I’ve actually always made pancakes from scratch but it is such a big undertaking getting out all the ingredients, figuring out his many times to double the batch and so on. This is so convenient and I’ve shared the link to your site and this page, with several friends 🙂
Sara @ Mama's Therapy says
My youngest loves pancakes! I will have to try this recipe next time. Oh, and we make ours special on the weekends with chocolate chips or m&m’s. (found your link on Thrifty Thursday 🙂
Stephanie says
We do chocolate chips pretty regularly, but oooo M&Ms in pancakes sounds fancy (and delicious)! Thanks Sara!
Michelle @ Moms Are Frugal says
This post was perfect because I was just getting ready to look on Pinterest for a pancake recipe. We had to have a tight budget this month so bisquick was cut from the list!
Stephanie says
Excellent! I’m glad the timing was right. You probably have all the ingredients on hand. You can use whatever kind of flour you normally use!
Allison says
Hi, Making things from scratch and in large amounts is new to me. I did purchase some air tight containers to store in, although I do not yet have the knowledge of “shelf life” for these homemade items. What would you say is hte shelf life for this recipe? Or how long has it taken you to use, and still been ok, without going bad? thanks!
Stephanie says
Hi Allison! Welcome to the wonderful world of baking in bulk from scratch! As long as you are storing in an airtight container (a cleaned out gallon ice cream bucket works just fine), the shelf life is long. We use ours within a month, but it would last much longer (like years). All the ingredients are pantry items that last for years on their own and mixing them together doesn’t affect their shelf life.
Michele says
Thanks for the idea of mixing up the pancake mix in advance. BTW, in the section where you wrote how much you mix up for your family, your wrote “milk” twice. I think you meant to put “mix” as the first ingredient.
Stephanie says
Thanks Michele! I’ll go and fix that now!
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer says
We make all of our pancakes and most of our other bread products from scratch now. It saves SO much money!
Stephanie says
We make most things from scratch now too! It does save lots and it’s comforting to be able to pronounce and list all the ingredients 🙂
Martin says
I do not eat pancakes much and have never done them home made. I normally only eat them out in a cafe or something like that. Thanks for the share of this recipe as it has taught me that I can make them cheaply.
Stephanie says
Thanks for dropping by Martin. Pancakes are great to make at home. My kids love to eat any leftover pancakes for snacks or for lunch, too.
Hayley @ A Disease Called Debt says
I hardly ever eat pancakes despite loving them – I didn’t know they could be cost effective! How much would it cost approx to make a portion of these pancakes? I usually eat cereal which really does add up even buying the cheap own brands and basic ones!
Stephanie says
Cereal does add up fast and it isn’t nearly as filling as pancakes (or oatmeal)! My kids have bottomless pits for stomachs, so they could eat cereal all day and never get full! I don’t have the exact price calculation since it mostly comes from the pantry (except the milk and eggs). Maybe next time I grind wheat, I will measure and calculate how much that costs me. We have chickens, so I don’t even know what eggs cost at the store these days!