Homemade “Shake and Pour” Pancake Mix!

Jill Nystul · Updated on: August 18, 2025

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My neighbor Debbie, who lives 4 doors down the street from me, just happens to be the Extension Agent for our County. She a wizard at everything domestic and frugal! I really think that’s what ought to be on her business card…Agent of Domestic and Frugal Wizardry! :-) She’s the one that turned me onto the S.O.S. (Soup or Sauce Mix) that really changed the way we cook in this house! Well, now she’s done it again! Well, she and her colleagues at the Utah State University Extension Office.

A lovely reader by the name of Shareise emailed me recently asking about a homemade version of Bisquick’s Shake ‘n Pour Pancake Mix. That sent me on a mission to FIRST find a homemade version of BISQUICK and then to figure out how to make it into a “shake and pour” PANCAKE MIX.

One of the first things I ran across was something called Utah Ready-Quick Mix on the USU Extension Office website, which is basically a homemade version of Bisquick….and more! They even have a 21-page booklet that you can download for free with all kinds of recipes (including pancakes!) you can make with this stuff! I knew if it came from Debbie and her people, it had to be good. So I started with that and then took it from there.

First, the ingredients and directions for the Utah Ready-Quick Mix:

Ingredients

9 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup double-acting baking powder
4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups shortening—which does not require refrigeration
1 3/4 cups non-fat dry milk

Directions

Stir baking powder, non-fat dry milk, and salt into the flour.

Cut shortening into flour mixture until all particles of shortening are thoroughly coated and the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. This can be done with a food processor, blender, electric mixer, pastry cutter, whisk, or fork. (I had the pleasure of using my new Blendtec blender for this process…and it worked like a dream!).

Store in a tightly covered container, at room temperature for up to six weeks. You can also freeze it.

Once you have your ready-quick mix put together, then you can proceed to make your “shake and pour” pancakes!

Basically I took their recipe for Pancakes and Waffles (using the Ready-Quick Mix) and tweaked it a bit so that it would fit into a quart mason jar and allow the addition of an egg and some water with a little room left for “shakin”.

Now I know the store-bought stuff only requires adding water, but to duplicate that in my HOMEMADE version I would have had to track down and add powdered eggs. Since I’ve never USED powdered eggs and wouldn’t have the first clue where to even buy them…I decided simply adding an egg wasn’t too much to ask for this mix. Those of you who are powdered eggs experts might want to educate me further about this.

To assemble your Shake and Pour Pancake Mix:

Add 2 cups Ready-Quick Mix and 1 teaspoon of sugar to a 1 quart mason jar, put the lid on the jar, and shake the contents until it’s well-combined. Slap a label of some kind on it with these simple instructions:

Add 1 cup water and 1 egg, replace lid, and shake vigorously!

The batter will NOT be completely smooth but that’s perfectly fine. They will cook up like a dream!

Here is a stack of my “shake and pour” pancakes that turned out SO delicious! I had forgotten how much I LIKE pancakes made with Bisquick (or Ready-Quick Mix!) The last several years we have become a little lazy and have mostly purchased the JUST ADD WATER pancake mix. But honestly, these tasted so much better! Much more of a homemade texture and taste to them!

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: I use Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking Mix for almost ALL my baking, which is essentially a Bisquick-type mix already. So it wouldn’t have made sense for me to make a “homemade Bisquick” using Pamela’s. What I did was filled up a 1 quart mason jar with the dry ingredients in Pamela’s Pancake recipe (doubled) and all I have to do is add water and an egg (plus 1 Tbls oil) for a gluten-free shake and pour mix!