Welcoming The Fall Into Our Home: Pumpkin Pancakes!

I’m baaack!

Honestly, I have a backlog of recipes and photos to post….I just haven’t felt motivated to do so.  Sorry, Charlie(s).

But now.  Now we are finally experiencing some fall weather here in north Florida and I got motivated to do some celebratory cooking!  First up:  Pumpkin pancakes!  (I have to say “pumpkin pancakes” slowly or I read and say it as pumpkin paMcakes.  Just thought you should know.)

Unlike Peter Peter, I have never been much of a pumpkin eater.  I don’t really care for pumpkin pie, even.  But I’ve been browsing all these fall recipes and pumpkin is everywhere and suddenly it’s sounding pretty fantastic to me.  Maybe it’s the hormones.  Maybe it’s just the natural expansion of my slowly aging palate.  Either way, I got up and made some pumpkin pancakes this morning!

I took this recipe from Xiaolu at 6 Bittersweets.  She is quite the cupcake artist, too.  I’m pondering her Caramelized Banana Creme Brulee Cupcakes, which look and sound fabulous.  They also look like a lot of work, and so I haven’t moved much beyond pondering them.

Back to the pancakes:  I thought they turned out GREAT!  Not surprisingly, David was not so enthusiastic.  He is just not an adventurous eater, people.  He likes scrambled eggs and ketchup for breakfast, turkey sandwiches for lunch and steak and potatoes for dinner.  He could honestly live very happily on that menu DAILY.  Sad, huh?  Me, I love food.  I love trying new food.  Variety is the spice of life, right?  At least when it comes to eating?

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cream Cheese “Syrup”

Pancake Ingredients:

-1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1 tablespoon wheat germ
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I did not have any ground nutmeg, so instead of adding everything seperately I just used a pumpkin pie spice mix that I already had, because it had all the ingredients in it, minus the cloves, add allspice.  I thought it was good!)
-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
-pinch of ground cloves
-pinch of cayenne powder (oops, I forgot the cayenne!  I bet it gives it a unique little bite.  Next time!)
-1 egg
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-1 tablespoon molasses
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned)
-1 cup buttermilk (I substituted skim milk plus 1 tsp lemon juice)
–vegetable oil for the pan

Cream Cheese Syrup Ingredients:

-3/4 cup cream cheese frosting (any kind but I used extra from the recipe below)
-1/2 cup milk
-1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk, or more to taste

OK, I did not use the sweetened condensed milk.  I just made the frosting with the following ingredients and added 1/2 cup milk to thin it.  Yummm.

-4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
-1/8 cup (2 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
-1/8 cup maple syrup
-1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted (I did not sift)

Directions:

-In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, wheat germ, baking power, baking soda, and spices.

-In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg until thoroughly combined, then add the oil, molasses, sugar, pumpkin, and buttermilk.

-Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk gently until the batter is mostly mixed but still contains small lumps. Let batter rest while pan heats, at least 5 minutes.

-Heat non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Add a few drops of oil and spread it over the bottom of the pan.

-Pour pancake batter onto hot griddle approximately 1/4 cup at a time.

ooo...orange pancake!

-When the edges start to dry and bubbles appear on top, flip to cook the other side.

-Keep pancakes warm in an oven heated to 275 degrees as you repeat the process to cook the rest of the batter.

nekkid pumpkin pancakes

-To make the syrup, simply mix all the ingredients together until smooth. You can play around with the proportions to get the perfect sweetness/thickness for you.

It looks like she's having an epiphany, no? "Pumpkin pancakes...who would have thought..this changes everything!"

OK, and finally, with the syrup (sooooooooo good with the syrup!)

Get in my belly!

Welcome, Fall!

Becki

Tagged as: Breakfast, pancakes, pumpkin