I’m not really one for food fads. I was tired of the make-every-food-rainbow-colored fad in super short order, the macaron fad got boring pretty quickly, and if I see one more carb dish “made over” with cauliflower (yuck!) I swear I’ll scream. However, I have to say that I am totally on board with the pumpkin trend. Every year I look forward to pumpkin season. Not because I can finally have pumpkin flavored things, because I make those year round. No; I look forward to it because canned pumpkin gets cheaper and I can stock my pantry for the year. And, now that I have my own basement with my own pantry shelves, I plan to go a little stock up crazy. It’s already begun; I have eight 15 ounce cans and three 29 ounce cans of pumpkin on my shelves. And these pancakes are a prefect way to use some of them up!

Start with your basic pancake ingredients, plus pumpkin and spices…

Basically, all you’re doing is mashing the recipes for pancakes and pumpkin pie together! So combine all of your wet ingredients, including the pumpkin. Oh! I’m hoping that by now you know that you should NEVER crack eggs on the side of a bowl, dish, or pan. Not only can it make a mess, but you’re almost guaranteed to end up with shell in your finished product, and when you bash the shell into the inside of the egg you’re also introducing any bacteria or debris that was on the outside of the egg into the inside- of the egg and then of you! So please; ALWAYS crack your eggs on the counter or another flat surface and pry them apart to empty them.

Ok- you’ve got your wet ingredients well mixed, now combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. The amounts I’m working with here make a large batch- enough to have leftovers to freeze. I got 24 pancakes out of this batch, using 1/3 of a cup of batter for each pancake. You could halve the amounts, but you’d end up with half a can of pumpkin in your fridge and unless you already have an idea of what to make with that, it’s easier (and less wasteful) to just make the full batch. So get your biggest bowl and combine the dry ingredients completely. Make a well in the middle, like so:

That will make mixing in the wet ingredients easier. You want to make sure everything is incorporated, but not perfectly smooth. If you wanted to add something like nuts or chocolate chips, now is the time to do so. You’ll end up with a big bowl of orange…

Now drop the batter onto a hot griddle or pan using a 1/3 cup measure. (By the way; that will make nice, big pancakes that are about 3-4 inches across. To make smaller cakes, use a 1/4 cup measure. Or you could make mini pancakes by using a tablespoon measuring spoon.) This is a very thick batter that will result in beautiful, thick, puffy pancakes…

Cook the pancakes 3-4 minutes on each side, until they are a deep golden brown. Remove them to a platter or baking sheet and repeat until you’re out of batter. Then you can serve them up with whatever strikes your fancy! We’re pretty old fashioned in our house;

Plenty of butter and maple syrup for us! Well, for 3 of us. The girls prefer theirs the way their grandmom taught them to eat pancakes: lots of butter and a light sprinkling of sugar. Either way, these are some of the best pancakes we’ve ever eaten! And if you make the full batch (and your family doesn’t devour all of them at once), you’ll have some left to freeze for later. These warm up easily in the microwave in just a couple of minutes- perfect for busy week day mornings! Even the coldest, dreariest day brightens up a bit when you get to eat pumpkin pie pancakes for breakfast 🙂