Cooking corner: pumpkin pancakes

By Virginia Osella

Back in November, I chopped up and cooked a huge pumpkin and then looked up tons of recipes to help me use it all. I was looking for breakfast ideas, and I found this one for pumpkin pancakes on Martha Stewart’s website. It ended up becoming my favorite recipe—I made it four weekends in a row.

These pancakes make an easy, but delicious breakfast, especially with real maple syrup on top. I always like eating sweet breakfast food with a strong cup of coffee.

You probably have all the ingredients on hand, except the pumpkin and spices. Canned pumpkin puree is available year-round, and is an easy alternative to cooking a whole pumpkin.

All of the spices used in the recipe run about $2 each and will be worth the investment because you’ll want to make these pancakes again and again.

One batch serves about 4 people, but the leftovers are good too. I stored mine in the fridge and then warmed them up in the toaster oven. This way you can have a real breakfast ready in minutes, right before you run out for classes on Monday morning.

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cup flour

2 tbs sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

1 cup milk

6 tbs mashed pumpkin (or canned pumpkin puree)

2 tbs melted butter

1 egg

Directions:

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar and spices) together in a large bowl. In another bowl combine the milk, pumpkin, butter and egg.

Fold in the dry ingredients.

Melt a small amount of butter in a skillet over medium heat so the pancakes don’t stick to the pan, and pour in approximately 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake.

After they get firm around the edges and start to bubble on top, flip and cook until lightly browned on both sides. If they start to burn, but still seem squishy in the center, turn down the heat a bit.

Serve with butter and maple syrup.