Homemade Baking Mix – Healthified

I love my regular homemade baking mix, it makes some of our favourite pancakes (and according to the comments I’ve received, many others favourite too). I like the quick and filling breakfast it makes during the week, but I’ve never felt like it had enough nutritional value for an everyday type of thing. If my kids are going to enjoy pancakes once or twice a week I want them to be healthier and have more fibre. I got asked quite often how to make it with whole wheat flour or how to make it the equivalent of the Bisquick Heart-Smart mix, so I thought it was about time to make the move.

I’ve taken the original recipe, subbed a portion or the white flour for whole wheat flour and wheat germ, and upped the baking powder a bit to make up for the heaviness of the whole wheat. My family loves whole wheat bread so I don’t really know why it took me so long to try this. So far I’ve used the mix for pancakes and biscuits – they were both delicious. Although I haven’t tried it in my other baking mix recipes, I’m fairly confident this will work, as the original, and be able to be substituted in any recipe that calls for bisquick or other baking mixes.

To get more tips on making it healthier and links to recipes, you should definitely scour the original post and comments. I love when readers chime in with their adaptations and recipes and there are plenty of good ideas to be found. I received an email from a reader, Elizabeth, who said ‘I am on a reduced salt diet and pancakes, waffles and biscuits are loaded with sodium. I changed your recipe just a little and got a great tasting alternative. I used unsalted butter, sodium free baking powder and half the salt. It is wonderful!’ So, feel free to tweak these recipes to your liking and make them suitable for your family. Many people have also used the original recipe and subbed all of the white flour with white whole wheat flour and it sounds like it was a great success.

I’ve made the mixing process a bit easier by doing what has become the norm for me – grating in the cold butter rather than cutting it in with a pastry blender. This works great for me but feel free to go the normal route if you prefer.

For more recipes to use this mix in, head over to the original Homemade Baking Mix post.

Whole Wheat Baking Mix

Makes: 6 cups

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup wheat germ (or additional whole wheat flour)
• 6 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (salted or unsalted), cold

Instructions

1. Mix together flours, wheat germ, baking powder, sugar and salt. Quickly grate in butter (using a cheese grater), in a couple additions, tossing with flour to coat the butter so it doesn’t stick together. Store in the fridge (for as long as the butter stays good for), or in the freezer for longer storage.

Drop Biscuits

1. Mix together 1/3 cup of milk for every 1 cup of mix. Drop onto un-greased cookie sheets and bake @ 450ºF for 10-12 min.
2. *Add any additional ingredients you wish such as cheese or herbs before adding the milk.
3. * 1 cup of mix will yield about 6 biscuits.

Pancakes

1. Mix 2 cups of mix with 1 cup milk and 2 eggs. Cook on hot griddle.
2. *As with the biscuits you can add any flavouring or other ingredient you would like, such as chocolate chips or blueberries.