Thursday, February 19, 2009

Pancake Mix


"This is the best idea I've had in years!" I proclaimed to a few buddies in school. Their eyes widened, probably hoping I had come up with something fun for the weekend, and I, uh, kinda had, if you share my idea of fun. "I made my own pancake mix!" Their eyes drooped in disbelief. "You mean like Bisquick?" one asked. "Uh well, I guess so but I mean without the artificial ingredients and all." They shrugged unimpressed. "When I'm making them pancakes Sunday morning they'll appreciate it a little more!" I thought to myself.


To make this mix, I used the pancake recipe I always use but multiplied the dry ingredients by 5, then added them to a large jar, and shook the heck out of it. Now the reason for making your own mix is convenience, and I didn't want to have to measure out 2 1/3 C and 2 teaspoons of dry mix every time I wanted pancakes. I saw that the ratio of dry to buttermilk is almost 1:1, so I tried the recipe using 1 cup of mix and 1 cup of buttermilk, and just using 1 egg and 1 tbs butter. I know the ratios are a little off from the original recipe, but it worked great.


To try to make the pancakes just a little more tender, I tried mixing the melted butter with the flour before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. I wanted the fat to coat the flour so that the flour would develop less gluten once the other wet ingredients were added. It definitely worked. These pancakes came out very tender. My sister proclaimed them "The best pancakes I've ever had." Whenever she likes a food that I make, I see it as an accomplishment.


I made extra pancakes, then froze them in separate plastic bags so that my sisters could toast them and eat them for breakfast. Sometimes I'm just in the mood to use my cooking for the forces of good.

7 comments:

c3 said...

Clearly your brilliance and kindness know no bounds!

I think it's so cool that you made extra pancakes to heat up for later.

I hope your sisters realize how lucky they are!

Vanessa said...

Your man crush has an instant pancake mix as well......it too is great.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/our instant-pancake-mix-recipe/index.html

Crafty Lady said...

Now you are making me crave pancakes! I do the same thing for my brownie mix. I give the dry ingredients as a gift with suggestions for additions. The dry mix makes good brownies on its own, and keeps longer when you don't have to worry about nuts going bad or anything like that.

On the instruction card I included with the first jar I gave as a gift, I printed "store in a cool dry place for 6 mos" instead of "up to 6 mos." In my defense, I was only 11 or 12.

Tags said...

The Forces of Good thank you.

Anonymous said...

try putting in ricotta cheese. i love ricotta blue berry pancakes..they are super tender.

Anonymous said...

So I tried these this weekend, and yummmm-meeeee! But I had trouble with lumps in the batter that I couldn't get out to save my life! At some point, I actually resorted to trying to squish them with my fingers, which sort of worked, but not well enough for the trouble. Are the lumps a result of adding the melted butter to the flour first? Notably, the cooked pancakes did not have pockets of flour, so maybe they "dissolved" during cooking? I'll try it without adding the melted butter first next time and see if it helps, but regardless - fabulous pancakes!

Anonymous said...

Melted butter mixed with the dry ingredients is a great technique. That's how my parents did it and I continue the tradition today. I'm happy to see others using it.