Pumpkin Pancakes

PUMPKIN! I've been cooking or baking with it at least a couple times a week thus far this fall...and you can bet that I'll continue making many yummy pumpkin dishes. I just can't get enough! This past weekend I actually had time on Saturday morning to make a slightly more time consuming breakfast, so I took advantage of that time and made these delicious pumpkin pancakes. They were super easy and even more delicious than they were easy! Bottom line = they're a must try. :)

The recipe is from Sunset magazine, and I found it online from myrecipes.com. The site actually provides a recipe for ginger butter but I did not make that. It sounds great though!

Ingredients:

-1 cup all-purpose flour (I used half AP and half whole wheat)

-2 Tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar

-1 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

-1/2 tsp. ground ginger

-1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1 large egg

-3/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

-3/4 cup canned pumpkin

-1/4 cup yogurt (I did not add this; I only had greek yogurt on hand and didn't want to open a container of it to use for this recipe, so I just didn't add it - worked out totally fine!)

-2 Tbsp. butter, melted (I did not add the butter either!)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, whisk together all the ingredients from the flour through the salt. In another bowl, mix together the egg, milk, pumpkin, yogurt, and melted butter. Stir together the wet and dry ingredients until they're just combined.

Over medium heat, coat a skillet with butter and place batter on pan in 1/4 to 1/3 cup portions. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes or until pancakes are browned. Flip and cook the other side, about 2 to 3 more minutes. As you're continuing to cook the remaining batter, transfer the done pancakes to a baking dish and keep warm in the oven (at around 200 degrees). Serve with butter, maple syrup, or toppings of your choice! For me, this made about 12 pancakes that were probably 3 inches or so in diameter.

For a fun side, I sliced some orchard fresh apples and "dressed" them with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon!

Pumpkin pancake perfection.

:)

Sweet Potato Pancakes

I think that many of you may already be aware of my obsession with sweet potatoes... I probably eat roasted sweet potatoes three or four days a week! The other day when I was roasting some, I decided to save some I had roasted so that I could try this Cooking Light recipe for sweet potato pancakes. What a great decision on my part. ;-) I am so happy I tried this recipe! I can definitely see this recipe being made quite often in the Barbershop...

The link to the recipe I followed is provided above so that you can take a look at the ingredients. I actually did not follow it exactly (no shocker there!). The recipe calls for pecans, but I did not use them. Also, it actually calls for canned yams or sweet potatoes. I decided to use the "real deal" though. And actually, it was this recipe for sweet potato pancakes on www.nurturebaby.com that inspired me to go ahead and use real sweet potatoes instead of canned. I did not follow that nurturebaby recipe, but it was what inspired me to find a sweet potato pancake recipe from Cooking Light. I knew there must be one out there! If you'd like advice for roasting sweet potatoes, feel free to check out my blog post about that here. For the potatoes used for these pancakes, I roasted them with only extra virgin olive oil and cinnamon.

Below are some pictures of the process along the way. :)

Here are the sweet potatoes that I had roasted and then mashed in a bowl (I did not puree them)...notice that I kept the skins on. I liked the texture that the skins added to the pancakes, but if you don't think you would, I'd recommend taking the skins off before roasting or just using canned sweet potatoes.

Once your griddle pan is hot, I'd recommend cooking the pancakes on a low-medium heat (maybe even closer to low). I cooked the first batch too quickly and although the outside of the pancakes made them look as if they were done (they were a lovely golden brown), they actually weren't quite done on the inside. So, for the remaining ones, cooking on a lower heat for a longer length of time seemed to work better. You'll still get the nice golden brown color on the outside AND they'll be thoroughly cooked on the inside.

I love how you can see the specks of real potato in this picture above...both the orange part of the potato and the skins. The skins are very healthy, you know! You can read more info about the health benefits of sweet potatoes here. I also love that this recipe called for whole wheat flour. I think that added to the nice light brown color of these pancakes too, as opposed to a traditional pancake that is closer to white than brown.

We ate them warm (of course) with a touch of margarine and maple syrup, and we had some fruit salad on the side. How delicious!!!!! I think you might need to make them for breakfast tomorrow, don't you?! ;-)