Basic Mix

A basic pancake mix contains all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. For each cup of flour add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Adjust your amounts depending on how much pancake mix you want to make. For whole wheat pancake mix, substitute half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. For buttermilk pancake mix, add 2 to 4 tablespoons of dried buttermilk. For oatmeal pancakes, substitute half of the all-purpose flour with oat flour or quick-cooking oats.

Gluten-Free Mix

It's possible to use gluten-free flours to make pancake mix, but baking gluten-free is a challenge for even the best baker. Gluten is an important ingredient when it comes to baking as it gives structure to the product and helps it to rise. Take gluten away and you typically have a dense baked good. A gluten-free pancake mix typically has more ingredients, such as rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, potato starch or almond flour, since a balance of multiple gluten-free flours is needed to recreate texture of pancakes made with all-purpose flour. It's possible to buy gluten-free all-purpose flour, which has all the ingredients necessary to make up for the lack of gluten.

Add-Ins

You can add nonessential ingredients, such as cocoa powder, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, dried buttermilk, almonds, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, dried blueberries, dried cranberries or chocolate, peanut butter or butterscotch chips, to your pancakes; however, you need to add these ingredients right before making your pancakes, as they will not hold up to optimum storage due to their moisture.

Batter

To make pancake batter, combine 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups of milk and 2 tablespoons of oil or melted butter for every cup of pancake mix. If you are going for dairy-free pancakes, use sweetened or unsweetened original soy milk, almond milk or coconut milk. If you want to add extra ingredients such as fruit, nuts or sweets, you can add them to the batter before cooking, but they are best added on top of the batter just as you start to cook the pancakes.

Storing

Store your prepared pancake mix in an airtight container. The pancake mix should be stored in a cool, dry place, and can be stored up to 6 to 9 months. Keep moisture out of the container, as this could cause mold to grow and the mix to spoil.