pumpkin pancakes: a saturday morning adventure

my dad is, irrefutably, the greatest pancake maker on the planet. after every childhood sleepover, we could expect to wake up to an array of blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate chip pancakes. he became a legend among our friends. more recently, he began making these magical pumpkin pancakes from a recipe he found in the newspaper. he had a great phase of whipping up a batch of them almost every weekend throughout the fall and winter months. thanks to my dad, making pancakes was never something i needed to be able to do well.

unfortunately, since this fall began, no one has seemed very interested in making pumpkin pancakes for me. after a few weeks of grieving, i decided to attempt them myself. we've been unable to locate the newspaper recipe for a while, and none of the recipes i found online appealed to me, so here's what i threw together in a moment of inspiration this morning:

pumpkin pancakes


2 C. baking/pancake mix
1/2 C. plus 1 T. canned pumpkin
1 C. evaporated milk
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2-3 T. brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) cinnamon
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg

mix evaporated milk, egg, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium sized mixing bowl with a whisk. add brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. mix thoroughly. add baking mix and blend with the whisk until just wet. the lumps in the batter are ok; if you mix it too much, your pancakes will be tough!

this batter is thick, so once it was on the griddle, bubbles do not rise to the top. 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat seemed to do the trick! i always use a 1/3 measuring cup to ladle pancake batter onto the griddle, but that is, of course, a matter of taste.

i will probably tweak this recipe in the weeks to come, but, all in all, i was satisfied with the finished product:

this cuddly winter chihuahua looks pleased as well.