Every morning I have the same conversation with my 4 year old. It goes like this:
Me: Hey buddy, what do you want for breakfast, cereal or oatmeal?
Him: Um.. pancakes.
Every once and a while just to throw him off and make myself appear to be Supermom I say, “Okay”. I wish I could capture the look on his face when this happens because it’s priceless.
This recipe is a staple at our house. It uses half all purpose flour and half whole wheat. (If you want a 100% whole wheat recipe, click here) And we’re not adding whole wheat just to try and be kind of healthy, it actually tastes amazing with the part whole wheat flour. You get a good dose of whole grain, and the recipe uses only a little sugar, a little oil, and an added egg white. Top them with fruit and I feel pretty good feeding them to my kiddos a couple days a week.
The other thing I love is that these make great freezer pancakes. I can get 24 perfect kid-sized pancakes from this recipe and I keep them in the freezer in a zip lock bag. That way when my son bats his eyelids and pleads for pancakes I have no problem whipping them out and becoming a star for the day (or at least for like 30 minutes). Kind of like when I pull my other sneaky Mom trick and let him eat ice cream for breakfast. Later in this post I’ll show you some of my favorite kid-friendly healthy pancake toppers.
Here we go:
Dry Ingredients: Whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar. And can I just say that I’m not one of those people who likes whole wheat in everything? I know you people are out there because you comment on every recipe we post that involves flour asking for whole wheat instructions. So trust me- these taste REALLY good.
Wet Ingredients: low-fat buttermilk, egg, egg white, vanilla, and just a touch of canola oil. I do suggest using real buttermilk (as opposed to souring your own milk with lemon juice or vinegar) the shortcut totally works, but I think they turn out much fluffier with real buttermilk. When I use milk I always end up with a super thin batter and flatter pancakes.
All you do is whisk the dry and whisk the wet and then stir together. Easy breezy. And really, you could even make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients and whisk your wet stuff right there to keep it all in one bowl. Since we make these fairly often I sometimes mix up a few batches of just the dry ingredients and keep them in ziplock baggies in the freezer. Then it’s even easier to whip them up.
Watch for bubbles to form around the pancake. You can usually tell when a pancake is done because if nudge it with your spatula it holds its shape pretty well around the edges- as opposed to mushing all over.
And there you have it. Soft, fluffy, delicious, pancakes that are relatively healthy and easy enough to whip up on a week day.
Since I consider these to be a semi-healthy pancake we try to top ours with something semi-healthy too. For a super easy fruit syrup, just heat up a little jam in the microwave and it easily pours like a syrup. You can do the same thing to peanut butter, and add a little hot water to either of those to make them thinner if needed.
My kids like them with a smear of peanut butter- and with some of the warm jelly syrup poured on top it’s just like a yummy PB & Jelly pancake sandwich!
It’s also a great way to get fruit into my kiddos when otherwise they’d probably just be downing bowls of “fruit” loops. They easily gulp up berries, bananas, stonefruits, etc. when they’re sitting on top of a fluffy pancake; who wouldn’t?!
Whole Grain Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- butter for pan
Instructions
- Preheat griddle pan.
- Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk together. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla and whisk well. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until moistened and combined.
- Coat pan with butter and then pour on pancake batter. Use about 1/4 C batter for large pancakes (5-6") and 2 T for kid-sized ones (2 /2-3"). Wait until bubbles form and edges are set and then flip.
- Makes 12 large or 24 small pancakes.
- Freezer Instructions: These pancakes freeze wonderfully. Just lay out pancakes in a single layer on a baking sheet or other pan. Freeze until solid and then place in a zip-lock bag. To serve, just warm up in the microwave or toaster.
Questions & Reviews
This recipe was tasty. I’d scale back on the baking soda just a tad, and increase the baking powder just a tad. I made mine with white whole wheat that I grind in my blender. This recipe is great with maple syrup!
This has been my go-to pancake recipe for over 7 years. My husband discovered that he is gluten intolerant about 2 years ago and I figured out that this recipe still works with gluten free flour! I simply substitute Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour for the flour listed in the recipe and it works perfectly every time!
I also sift the dry ingredients and use 2 whole eggs instead of 1 whole egg and 1 egg white. The result is the fluffiest pancakes you can imagine. We can’t even tell they’re gluten free.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use any type of milk (dairy free works too) with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice mixed in. Buttermilk gives the lightest, fluffiest results but milk + acid still makes great pancakes.
Thanks for this gem of a recipe!
That’s funny! I have an exact opposite conversation with my 3-year old:
Me: Do you want waffles or pancakes for breakfast?
(Sometimes he chooses one)
Him: I want oatmeal!
Then I spend five minutes trying to talk him out of oatmeal (I dislike oatmeal and my 2 year old does not eat it very well), before I give in.
These pancakes are SERIOUSLY delicious! I used real buttermilk and white whole wheat flour for the wheat flour. These are every bit as tasty as my unhealthy white flour buttermilk pancakes. So, these are the new everyday pancakes, folks! Soooo tasty!!
I know this recipe has been here for years and probably no one will ever see this comment but just in case…
This is a favorite recipe in our house that we’ve been making (and freezing) for years but today due to lack of an ingredient we changed it and it tasted completely amazing so I wanted to share. I didn’t have whole wheat flour and since I still wanted healthier pancakes I decided to grind up some large flake oatmeal into oat flour to use just in place of the whole wheat and WOW…SO awesome!!! (We also added some blueberries but we often do that so no major change there.) We’ll still be making this recipe as is but what a fun change of flavor this alternative turned out to be and just as healthy. 🙂
Love it- thanks for the great suggestion!
These look really good. My only complaint is that they say “whole wheat” when they are actually only part whole wheat and part white flour. Do you think it would work to do all wheat flour? I really prefer the flavor of whole wheat pancakes.
These pancakes were amazing. I ate them with peanut butter and blueberries and they were an awesome dinner.
These are wonderful! My husband loves pancakes but I’ve never been fond of them, especially buttermilk. Since I make them so rarely I have never developed the knack of making them. When I had leftover buttermilk from another recipe I decided on a New Years treat & your site popped up in response to a google search. We try to do as much whole wheat as possible so I used 1 cup whole wheat to 1/2 cup all purpose flour & let it set a few mins while getting other things ready & they were wonderful & easy(the batter thickened nicely)! This will be a “keeper” for us. Thanks for sharing!
In case anyone out there is like me and trying to use buttermilk powder.. or if I ever lose my notes :)The estimated conversion I found online for Bob’s Red Mill powdered buttermilk:
*For 1 1/2 c Buttermilk add 3Tbs of powder to a measuring cup and then add enough water to make 1 1/2 C buttermilk. *
1 cup of buttermilk=2Tbs powder+7/8 cups water
1/2 cup buttermilk=1 Tbs Powder+7 Tbs Water.
1&1/2 C buttermilk= 3Tbs powder and 1&1/4cup & 1Tbs Water
Trying to deal with those conversions when I’m in a hurry and it’s early makes me want to scream! Hopefully this can benefit someone else out there 🙂
I used the full fat buttermilk and the batter was very thick and I had trouble getting the middle of them done, so I thinned it out with reg. milk. My boys SCARFED these down! They were delicious (and this from an anti-wheat girl!)…yum yum!
Will full-fat buttermilk yield same results?
FANTASTIC recipe….. we love pancakes & eat them often, but this recipe is my favorite. Thank you
I have made these time and time again. We love them. However, every time I make them I have to add more flour. Like 1/2 cup to 1 cup because they are really runny. What am I doing wrong. I even printed the recipe out again today to make sure I had the ingredients right. Same…but I still had to add more flour. Do you have any ideas? Am I not waiting long enough for the buttermilk (aka lemon juice and milk) to curdle?
It definitely is a runnier batter, so you may not be doing anything wrong! One thing that’s important is making sure your pan is nice and hot so the batter starts cooking right when it his the pan. But feel free to add a little more flour if you need to. I’m glad you like it!
I am now a pro at pancake making because of this recipe. WE LOVE IT! When I want to make it in the morning I combine all the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag the day before and then in it’s ready to go into the wet ingredients in the morning. They taste so good. I’m so glad I found this recipe!
These pancakes are our family’s new favorite!!! I made them a couple of weeks ago and we’ve had them again last week!! YUM, YUM, YUM!!! One of my daughters thinks that these pancakes taste like cookies, they are sooo good!!!
Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
I have a tried and true pancake recipe that I have been using for years(without buttermilk), but I just had to try this recipe. I made them last night after dinner (actually just trying to use up my buttermilk before it went bad) and my 2 year old and 4 year old boys could not stop eating them, nor my husband! He kept saying, it must be the buttermilk! I did add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and susbstituted coconut oil for the canola (I didn’t have any canola) and they were perfect! Thanks again for this delicious recipe!
I never have buttermilk and my husband must have used up the last of the lemon juice. I did have a couple of fresh limes and that worked great!
Best pancakes EVER! I was hesitant because of buttermilk in the title. Thank you for the tip on using lemon juice with milk, it worked perfectly. I will never buy a box mix again. Next time I’ll use your suggestion and make up a couple of bags with just the dry mix for my pantry. Thank you!
I REALLY GOT EXITED WHEN I VISITED YOUR SITE !!!I LOVE THE PHOTOS OF THE FOOD AND INGREDIENTS. REALLY GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY . I LOVE YOUR RECIPES,AND CANT WAIT TO USE THEM .
I wish I could put into words how much I LOVE these pancakes! I’ve made them multiple times now and have been blown away each time! They smell SO good when they are cooking, I almost just want to eat them right there off the griddle! I love how fluffy they get. I love how they have a sweet taste. I love that they are healthy. I love how I can make a bunch of batches ahead of time, and then throw it together quickly in the morning. I love that my husband says, ” I really want to eat another one, but I know I will pop if I do.” Thanks for such a great recipe!
Downloaded the recipe! Thanks so much, they look super good!
These pancakes are SO good. I've tried a bunch of whole wheat pancake recipes and have liked them okay, but my family has never been too thrilled with them. But they all liked these! Great flavorful, light and fluffy–perfect!
I do NOT love pancakes, but my kids do. I tried this baby out and was thrilled! I doubled the batch thinking I could freeze some of them, but it didn't happen… the kids took them out of the fridge later that day and toasted them and ate them plain. I will never make any other kind ever again!
YUM and thank you!