Rick's Easy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons oil or melted butter
• 1 egg beaten with the oil or butter
• ⅔ cup whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In another smaller bowl mix the wet ingredients.
2. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix very briefly until almost smooth.
3. Bake by ladlefuls in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Turn over when bubbles start to form on top of the batter. Watch closely because the pancakes can burn quickly.
4. Serve with syrup, cheese and/or fruit. Makes 8-10 pancakes.

Notes

19 December 2025: We’ve been making these on Friday mornings. We rotate among Irish whole wheat flour, King Arthur golden wheat, and King Arthur all-purpose. For the whole wheat pancakes, I use 90 grams of the whole wheat and 40 grams of the all-purpose. I use between 245 and 255 grams of milk, during the winter (drier) season leaning toward the heavier end.

When made with all-purpose flour, the pancakes are a bit bland on their own, so I typically add 10 grams of buttermilk powder to 124 grams of all-purpose flour, I slightly reduce the amounts of baking soda and baking powder (we don’t like our pancakes “puffy”), and I use 255 grams of milk.

6 March 2026: We tried these for the first time today with rye flour (medium rye from King Arthur Baking). They were excellent! Today’s batch was made with 50% rye and 50% all-purpose flour (so 65 grams of each) and 255 ml of milk. Next time we’re going to try a 65%/35% rye/all-purpose blend (85 grams of rye and 45 grams of all-purpose). We will need to add more milk, too (at least 260 grams). Last time the batter was quite thick, and it may be even thicker with the extra rye added.

21 June 2026: We’ve been making these nearly every week, rotating the various whole grain flours and plain white flour (to which I always add buttermilk powder for extra flavor). Today I made 100% buckwheat pancakes for myself, and they turned out great. I added about ½ teaspoon of ground cardamom because I find its flavor goes very well with buckwheat. When making buckwheat for myself, I make a half-batch, along with another half-batch of whatever type Rich wants. I make the same amount of the liquid ingredients and split them basically in half, adding a teaspoon or so more to the portion to be used for the buckwheat.

26 June 2026: Some notes on the rye version: today I used 95 grams of rye flour and 35 grams of all-purpose, which was a very good mix. I used 262 ml of milk, and we agreed that due to the thickness of the batter (“thirstiness” of the rye flour) next time I should use at least 10-15 ml more. I also thought that it might work to split the dry ingredients into two bowls so that each one can be mixed with the wet ingredients just before cooking.

Quantities for single batch of pancakes (3 pancakes)