Spiced Pancakes

I admit it's been a while since I've posted anything interesting (read: food related). So I figured it was high time I made something I haven't already posted about. This morning I woke up in the mood for pancakes and, since I had a paper to work on, figured making some from scratch was a great way to procrastinate.



I think I've mentioned before that one of the more awesome wedding presents I got (discounting gifts of money, expensive kitchen appliances, etc.) was The Joy of Cooking. I can't remember who bought it for me (sorry!) but it's come in handy more than a few times. There are those moments when I feel a sudden urge to make cookies and need a quick and simple recipe, or times like that today when I need a recipe and pointers on making pancakes.



Since I wanted to keep this as simple as possible, I used their basic recipe, but I tweaked it a little to make it more interesting. I added some pumpkin pie seasoning to give it a Fall/Winter feeling. If I did it again, I would add more of it. I only put in 1 teaspoon, which resulted in a subtle spiced flavor, but I tend to prefer my flavors to be more pronounced. They did turn out pretty yummy though. We gobbled those things up like they were going out of style (which believe me, they never will).



Spiced Pancakes


Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 C flour (I used 1 C whole wheat and 1/2 C all-purpose)
  • 1 3/4 Tbsp Baking Powder (I thought this was a weird amount of baking powder, but I went with it)
  • 3 Tbsp Sugar
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Seasoning (I would add an extra teaspoon to this.)
  • 3 Tbsp Butter (melted)
  • 1 1/2 C Milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
  1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing quickly. Don't worry about lumps in the batter (this was a pointer in the book, but I actually tried to get it pretty smooth.) The book also recommends letting the batter rest for a couple hours in the fridge, but I didn't have that kind of patience.
  4. Grease a griddle or frying pan and heat until water splashed on the surface sizzles.
  5. Using a spoon or ladle, pour about 1/2 a cup (or a little less) of the batter onto the pan. To ensure circular pancakes, pour it on one spot. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SPREAD IT AROUND! If your batter is the right texture, it should spread enough on it's own. If the batter is too thick, at a small amount of water or milk (1 tbsp at a time). If the batter is too thin (spreading too much/too quickly) at a small amount of flour to thicken it.
  6. Let the pancake cook until bubbles start to form and pop on the top. I found that this happened pretty early on, but give it time (2 mins?) until you're seeing big bubbles towards the center of the pancake. Using a large spatula, lift up the edge to see if it's nicely cooked on the bottom. If it looks good, flip it with the spatula.
  7. Let the other side cook about 1 minute, or until it seems done.
  8. Repeat steps 5-7 with the rest of the batter.
  9. Serve pancakes with warm maple syrup, a pat of butter, whipped cream or whatever else you would normally eat your pancakes with. Enjoy!

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