Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Pancakes are seriously one of the easiest foods in the world to make from scratch. I promise, even if you are a novice in the kitchen, you can do this without a mix!
These pancakes are 100% whole wheat, but they are light, fluffy, and delicious, and they're very filling.
As my mom would say, these will stick to your ribs. 😉
They're very quick and easy to make (7 ingredients), and they're super inexpensive.
To make these, mix the dry ingredients (except for the brown sugar) in a bowl with a whisk, and, using a whisk or an egg beater, mix the brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, and egg in another bowl.
I like to do this in a 4 cup measuring cup, so as to avoid dirtying another dish.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix gently.
There will still be some small lumps of flour in the batter when you're done, and that's just fine.
If you over-mix the batter, you'll have tough, chewy pancakes.
Let the batter sit while you heat a skillet over medium high heat. It's hot enough when a drop of water sizzles immediately after landing in the skillet.
If your skillet is nonstick, you probably won't need to grease it, but if it's a traditional pan, you'll want to put some oil or butter in the pan before you make the pancakes.
Drop ⅓ cup portions of batter into the hot skillet and cook the pancakes until bubbles form on top.
(By the way, do you see the lumps in my batter? That's exactly how it should be.)
Flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Serve warm, topped with butter and syrup.
Or you can opt for whipped cream and whatever fresh fruit is in season.
And that's all there is to making your own not-from-a-mix pancakes!
Scroll down for the printable recipe. 🙂
Easy, 100% whole wheat pancakes I marked this as four serving sizes, but honestly, it depends how hungry your people are! These are more filling than white flour pancakes, though, so you won't need quite as many as you might think. If you are unlike me and enjoy making pancakes ahead to reheat later, you can cook a large batch of these, let them cool, and store them in ziploc bags in the freezer until you need them.
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Nutrition Information
Yield 4
Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories 185Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 49mgSodium 715mgCarbohydrates 27gFiber 3gSugar 6gProtein 8g
Yum!!! I was hoping for your whole wheat pancake recipe! Just in time for Mardi Gras when we are planning a pancake supper! Thanks so much!
Hi,
I just made some pancakes for breakfast. I put a 1/4 cup of rolled oats and chunks of freshly cut up apples in my batter. Oh, soo yummy! We don't buy the boxed mix either, too much stuff in it that's not necessary.
Oh those are nice and thick... I'm going to try them because I have a big 20# bag of whole wheat flour to use up!!
Yup, they are nice and thick! I love thick pancakes...I think it's the buttermilk that does that. When I've made them with regular milk in the past, they aren't nearly as thick.
Since they're so thick, it's easy to overcook the outside before the inside is done, so err on the low side when it comes to the heat you cook them at.
I've enjoyed reading your blog for some time now. I actually stumbled across it in a google search for homemade yogurt and voila! All my kids and my husband love the yogurt. We have started putting it in our pancakes in place of buttermilk. The result is much fluffier and moister pancakes. Also, do you mill your wheat or store buy it? I know this has made a huge difference for us in our ability to eat whole wheat anything :).
Hi Christie! That's interesting about the yogurt...I'll have to give that a try, as homemade yogurt is cheaper than buttermilk.
I mill my wheat...happily, I got a grain grinder as a wedding present 11 years ago, and it's still going strong.
Wow! This is a timely post. I've rediscoverd pancakes, and have been on a pancake kick. Hubby always made Sunday breakfast of bacon and french toast. I got tired of that, so now I make sausage and pancakes, but should really be doing whole wheat. Thanks for the recipe!
I make my yoghurt in a vacuum flask and strain it through a muslin cloth to thicken it. The last time I did this I kept the liquid and successfully used it to make a batch of scones. I'm now thinking that it might work just as well with pancakes. I'll let you know how I get on.
I'm interested in milling my own wheat - I'm currently paying $1.39/pound for the local, organic variety here and that is obviously pretty pricey. We make about as much bread/baked goods as you do and I think there is a good chance for more savings if I milled our own. I've never seen a "home mill". I have a Kitchen Aid mixer and I've seen there are a lot of different attachments to add to it - do you know if there is a grain mill? Or do you know where you get a mill like you have and how much it costs? Where do you get your wheat and what does it cost per pound? Thanks in advance!
Stacey, you can get organic hard red wheat for about $25/50 pound bag. I get mine through a place called Quail Cove Farms, but they only serve the DelMarVa area.
I think the KitchenAid has a grain grinder attachment. I haven't ever used one, so I can't vouch for how well they work. I own what's called a Whisper Mill...next time I grind grain, maybe I'll post some pictures. The one I have works very well. The flour is fine and light, just like whole wheat flour from the store.
Freshly ground grain is supposed to be a lot more nutritious than pre-milled flour, so that's another good reason to mill your own.
I am going to make this, this weekend! I bought myself some buttermilk last night 🙂 I love stealing your recipes!
Made these today, Kristen. They were great!
Perfect timing for me. I have some ww flour to use and I'm not sure I want to use my usual recipe for it. (It's the multi-grain bread from Mar06 CI, which I love and in which I can use my yogurt whey. But I'm trying to eat down my cabinets to use up "lost" stuff, so I'd rather not buy more hot cereal.) I shall have to try the pancakes soon.
I wonder if I can make them with buttermilk powder + yogurt whey?
I have tried just about every whole wheat pancake recipe under the sun and these are BY FAR the BEST! I have never written a review before but these are delicious! My daughter and her friend and I polished off a double-batch in one sitting! So fluffy, unlike other whole wheat pancakes. Thanks so much!
So if you make a double batch, do you just throw twice the ingredients in when you make it? Some recipes I've used make the finished product turn out WEIRD from the doubling. Usually I just make a batch, finish, then make another batch. How do you do it?
They look delicious btw AND I just got whole wheat flour! Woot! 🙂
A single batch of pancakes is never enough for us, so I almost always double this recipe and it comes out just fine. There are recipes that don't work if you double them, but this one works great. 🙂
My husband and I love pancakes for brunch on Saturdays. But I also love them (and other breakfast foods) for lunch or dinner too! 🙂
Ooh, yummy! I might have to convince my husband to try these! He's the pancake-maker around these parts. 😉
Kristen,
This will be my breakfast tomorrow. But I think I will use all purpose flour instead of whole-wheat. My husband prefers it that way - you see pancakes is definitely a new thing for us indians ( I have tried both all purpose flour as well as whole wheat before) - but all purpose flour turns out a little crispier than when I tried it last time with whole-wheat flour. Just a doubt I had, 'cuz we never make pancakes in India , and I have adapted reading blogs like yours - is the whole wheat flour pancake meant to be non-crispy or did mine turn out bad?
Thanks,
Navya
You can make your pancakes crispier by cooking them in some butter or oil. Also, perhaps adjusting your heat higher would help...when the pan is properly hot, you should be able to drop a bit of water on the pan and it should sizzle right away.
Hope that helps!
Thanks... I think the problem was because I added bananas to the whole-wheat batter last time - had read it on some other blog that bananas could be added and that's why it turned out so soggy.
I made your buttermilk pancakes for breakfast today and it was yummy. I followed your recipe to the dot and my husband loved it, he has asked me to make the same for breakfast tomorrow as well. Repeating the same breakfast two consecutive days is very rarely favored by my husband, so obviously I struck gold thanks to your recipe. So Kristen, thank you... You have touched our lives across the pacific ocean, in India. If you ever decide to come to Bangalore, India do let me know - I would love to show you around. I am sorry, if this seems like a impromptu-thing to write, it's just that I seem to feel I know you so much thanks to your blog.
Those look delicious!!!!
I make my own whole wheat pancakes also. I use honey or molasses instead of sugar, and good old butter instead of oil. I also eat mine with sort of a strange twist. I take frozen mixed berries or frozen raspberries and "cook" them in the microwave. This makes it's own juices. I pour that over my pancakes and then use my vanilla yogurt (yep it's your recipe) on them. No super sweet pancake syrup for me!!! If you haven't tried it like this you really should. It's super yummo!!!!!
Hi Kristen, I just made these pancakes and they turned out pretty tough. First of all, I used 1 tsp baking powder instead and I used whole milk. The batter seemed alright and I didn't overmix the batter...do you know what could be the problem? Thanks!
Hey there-
I'm so sorry your pancakes were tough! I'm guessing that your substitutions were the culprit. I'd try the pancakes again with baking soda and buttermilk instead. Buttermilk makes pancakes light, fluffy, and delicious, and there's really no equivalent substitute. I'm pretty sure that's what caused the problem.
If you can't find buttermilk at your store, you could look for powdered buttermilk in the baking aisle. That works pretty well!
Can you please make a printable version of this recipe? Thank you! My kids love these pancakes!
I just added one for you. Thanks for reminding me that this wasn't printable. I first published it way back before printable recipe technology was widely available!
Yum! I'm not supposed to eat wheat, but my life improved greatly when I discovered a recipe for cassava flour pancakes. We can enjoy Mardi Gras again!
Yours look sooooo good, though.
I love pure maple syrup or homemade fruit syrup on mine. Now I'm hungry again.
Pancakes are such a forgiving vehicle for gluten-free or lower gluten flours. Much better than trying to make, say, ciabatta without wheat!
Thank you for the recipe that uses whole wheat instead of white flour! I haven't been able to stock up on regular all purpose flour, so any alternative flour recipes will come in handy. I have all kinds of odds and ends of flours I need to use up.
(Kicking myself that I didn't buy the 50 lbs of flour online a week or two ago when they were still in stock.)
Yum! I love whole wheat pancakes!
I like to top mine with plain Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and a little jam melted with water to make a fruit syrup!
Oh, my, the pancakes were a disaster! I did put the brown sugar in with the dry ingredients; used milk with vinegar for buttermilk; used cold fine whole wheat flour(frozen) from Sam’s Club; and cooked them in a Teflon-type skillet. What a flop!
Oh goodness, I am so sorry to hear yours didn't turn out right. What exactly happened?
I’m not sure what happened…batter too thin…not sure if I’ll try the recipe again…followed recipe other than brown sugar added to dry ingredients…used fine whole wheat flour that was frozen so cold
If you used vinegar + milk in place of the called-for buttermilk, that could definitely make your batter too thin! I recommend a mixture of 50/50 yogurt and milk if you want a substitute, or the powdered buttermilk (reconstituted according to package directions).
I wonder if cold flour could be a little less prone to absorbing liquid, but that is just conjecture on my part. I do know it's recommended to have ingredients room temperature most of the time, so perhaps less chilly flour would help.