The taste of fall…

I LOVE all things pumpkin! I try to cram as much pumpkin into the months of October, November and December as I can. I have pumpkins all over the house, pumpkin scented candles, and I try to cook with it as much as possible too. Come January…I am so pumpkined out that I never want to eat or see another one (until next fall)!

Just as the weather started to cool down enough for me to want to bake something, I got an email from Putney Farm (a great food blog that I follow) for their post on Pumpkin Muffins. Putney Farm’s blog is not only loaded with delicious recipes, but also has amazing cocktails that will have you dreaming about happy hour. I made the yummy pumpkin muffins last week and they were really good! I did not have the pastry flour that the recipe calls for and used a mix of whole wheat and regular flour, so I’m sure mine were  not as light and cake-like as theirs were…but they were still DE-LISH!

Now for the pancakes! I had some pumpkin puree left over from making the muffins and decided to try my hand at pancakes. I am not really a home-made-pancake-making kind of mom. I will make them from a mix now and then, but our pancakes are usually eaten out at a restaurant on the weekend. Since I had the pumpkin and some buttermilk in the fridge, I figured this would be a good way to use them up and score points with my pumpkin loving kids!

I found a recipe that looked good on a blog called Pinch My Salt. I liked that there was some whole wheat flour in the recipe and not too much oil. They came out great and my kids loved them. Thanks for a great recipe, Nicole! I only changed a couple of things…I used a pumpkin pie spice (Trader Joe’s has a good one) instead of using the cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg. I also had to use all purpose flour instead of cake flour because that’s what I had.

There is something about the combination of pumpkin and cinnamon that makes my heart swoon. Then you get to top that with butter and maple syrup…forget about it! I highly recommend that you work these pancakes into your fall weekend breakfast rotation. You won’t be sorry!

Buttermilk Pumpkin Pancakes

Adapted from “Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes” – (Pinch of Salt)

Makes 10-12 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1  1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first 6 ingredients (whole wheat flour through pumpkin pie spice). In a separate bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients (buttermilk through brown sugar).
2. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and blend together with a wooden spoon until just combined. Lumps are ok, just make sure all the flour on the bottom of the bowl is mixed in. If batter seems too thick to pour, you can gently stir in a little more buttermilk. (Mine needed a bit more buttermilk to thin out the batter).
3. Drop pancakes by ladleful onto a medium-hot griddle. Pancakes are ready to turn when the edges start to look a little dry and you can see small bubbles forming on the surface.