pumpkin pancakes

Slightly spicy, these pumpkin pancakes are easy to whip up for a week-end breakfast or brunch.

This is my second recipe with my recent pumpkin, because lets face it when buying  a large pumpkin, or even half a pumpkin there is always going to be a lot of it around to use.

What you need to make a batch (about 15):

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 3 T brown sugar
• 1/2 cinnamon and extra for the dusting
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (about 2 cups raw)
• butter for frying
• castor sugar for dusting

First you will need to cook the pumpkin (or use left overs, or if you live in the USA you can buy it in a can).  Steam / shallow boil about 2 cups of raw pumpkin cut into medium-sized chunks until soft all the way through – about 20 minutes.  Allow to cool and puree with a hand blander until very smooth.

Take out 2 bowls, one for the wet and one for the dry.  In the one bowl sift the flour and baking powder then add the cinnamon and sugar.  In the other bowl lightly whisk the egg and milk together  and then whisk in the pumpkin puree.  Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until you get a thick batter.

Heat a knob of butter in a non stick frying pan and scoop out the batter and fry on the one side until bubbles start forming and then flip and cook the other side until golden brown.

Perhaps because these reminded me of pumpkin fritters I just had to dust this with cinnamon and sugar, but you could also serve with butter and syrup.

A couple of other recipes using pumpkin:

Roasted pumpkin risotto with blue cheese and pine nuts

Pumpkin soup with Thai red curry