sweetgreenkitchen

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

I had a spare can of pumpkin in the pantry and decided to add a little spice and pizzazz to our weekend brunch so I whipped up a batch of pumpkin & oatmeal spiced pancakes and oh are they yummy. Plus with the weather we’ve been experiencing here in the North East, I’d say it feels a lot more like late autumn than early spring anyway so why not dig in to a little healthy comfort food. With the combo of cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin grilling up on the stove your house is going to smell soooo good.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

Author: Sweet Green Kitchen’s Jen Jones

Ingredients:

Wet Ingredients

½ cup rolled Oats / Oatmeal

1 ¼ cups Buttermilk *

1 extra large Egg

3/4 cup canned Pumpkin **

1 Tablespoon Vanilla (yeah, it’s a lot, but it’s good)

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil or Butter – melted and cooled a bit

Dry Ingredients

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ teaspoon Nutmeg

¼ teaspoon Salt

Directions:

Heat a large non stick skillet over a medium flame.

In a medium-large bowl, pour in the Oats and Buttermilk. Stir together and let rest at room temperature about 2 minutes.

Add in the Egg, Pumpkin, Vanilla and Coconut Oil (or Butter). Stir to combine with the Oats and Buttermilk.

In a separate smaller bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined.

Add a little extra Coconut Oil or Butter to the hot pan and swirl around to coat.

Drop about ¼ cup of batter (I fill the same ½ cup measure I’ve already used and just fill it about halfway) into the pan and repeat until you run out of space. Just like cooking any pancake, as you start to see bubbles forming on top and the bottom is nicely browned it’s time to flip and cook a little more. Repeat until all the batter is used. I get about 14 pancakes with this recipe.

For topping: I love any pancake topped with assorted nuts and fruit and these are no different. The flavors of the pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg pair particularly well with Pecans, Bananas and Raspberries, topped with a little bit of maple syrup and I’d say that’s as good a way to start the day as any. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes:

*I don’t always have buttermilk on hand, which used to be a real bummer for me whenever I wanted to make buttermilk pancakes or something of the like early on a weekend morning, but then I discovered powdered buttermilk. This was a real aaaahhh moment for me, it’s shelf stable, mixes easily with water and cooks up just as tender and tasty. So I still do buy fresh buttermilk at times, but now I always have the powdered stuff in the pantry. For this recipe, I actually mix up 3 ½ Tablespoons of buttermilk powder with 1 cup of water plus ¼ cup regular milk.

**Canned pumpkin, believe it or not this is one canned food that’s super healthy, something about the canning process increases the levels of beta carotene.

If you have any leftovers (sometimes I’ll make a double batch, just for this purpose), they can be bagged and stored in the fridge then reheated, making a very quick and tasty school day breakfast. The hubby likes them as an after work snack, straight from the fridge topped with peanut butter, yum.