Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe with Fun Mix-in Ideas

Who needs baking mix? You can make your own homemade pancakes and they are healthier than the baking mix variety.  I had been a long time user of pre-made biscuit mix because of the convenience.  Because of that, it has taken me a few attempts to get this made-from-scratch pancake recipe just how I wanted it.

My kids love when I make pancakes for breakfast on Sunday mornings because I add all kinds of extras to make them fun! Fruits like strawberries, bananas and apples go great in pancakes. I have also made s’mores pancakes by dropping in broken graham cracker and chocolate bar pieces and mini marshmallows after pouring the batter into the frying pan. Around holidays when my kids end up with tubes of mini M&Ms, I usually save those to make M&M pancakes as a fun breakfast treat.

Ok, I admit the real reason I don’t make plain pancakes is I don’t like syrup on pancakes. I never have. In fact, I grew up thinking I hated pancakes, but in reality it was that I didn’t like the syrup my mom put on the pancakes. Even the smell of the syrup made me cringe when my mom fixed pancakes. Eventually I did come around and realize to I do actually enjoy pancakes.

Homemade Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup melted organic coconut oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups milk

Instructions:

• Heat frying pan on stove to medium to medium high heat with a little oil.  I like to use coconut oil.
• While the pan is heating, mix flours, baking soda, baking powder.
• Add coconut oil to flour mixture and use a fork to blend until mixture is crumbly.
• Add sugar, eggs and milk and stir until all batter is moist.
• Pour batter into frying pan.  I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup not quite full to scoop out the batter.
• Watch pancakes until large bubbles cover the top, about 1-2 minutes.
• Flip the pancakes and the bottom should be a nice golden brown.

For this recipe, I added chopped bananas to the pancakes after pouring the batter into the pan.  I made these for my toddler’s 2nd birthday breakfast since she loves “nana” and pancakes.

At the end of this post I include some more variations that my family enjoys.

Variations:

I have never liked syrup on pancakes.  As a kid I hated the smell of it and grew up not eating pancakes because I thought I didn’t like them.  As an adult I figured out it was not the pancakes I didn’t like.  It was just the syrup!  Because of that I make pancakes that have flavor on their own so they don’t need syrup.

For each of these variations I recommend adding the extras to the pancakes right after pouring the batter into the hot pan to ensure even distribution and to avoid discoloring the batter.

• Chopped bananas
• Chopped strawberries
• Blueberries — really messy for a tot to eat and for the person adding them to the pancakes, but they taste so good!
• M&Ms — my 7 year old loves these
• S’mores – mini marshmallows, graham cracker pieces and Hershey bar pieces — my husband loves these.

This variation works well when mixed into the batter before scooping and pouring into pan.

• Apple cinnamon – add 1 tsp cinnamon and a whole apple, peeled and chopped, to batter.

How do you make pancakes special for your family?