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My kingdom for a pancake….

Often people will ask me why I create my own recipes, and the simple answer is, “Because I have to.”

This weekend is a perfect example. I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes but for a variety of reasons my oldest currently needs a diet free of grains and sugars. “Not a problem,” I thought because there would surely be a recipe online I could use.

I was mistaken. There are indeed recipes, but they were either crepe recipes masquerading as pancake recipes (FYI that pumpkin mixed with eggs and a tbsp of flour is a crepe, not a pancake); orange colored pancakes (FYI that taking your pancake recipe and just adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pumpkin only makes orange tinted pancakes); or pumpkin pancake recipes using nut flours and lots of sugar or maple syrup and/or fat to cook them.

So, in the end, I once again had to create my own recipe to accommodate my family’s dietary and allergy needs. The result is below, and they were quite tasty.

Grain Free Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 cups pureed pumpkin

4 eggs

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup grain free chickpea flour

1/2 cup grain free cassava flour

2 cups unsweetened dairy free milk mixed with 2 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

1/4 cup melted non-dairy butter

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Cooking Instructions:

1. Whisk together the pureed pumpkin with the eggs until smooth.
2. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, chickpea flour and cassava flour, and blend well. Will be thick.
3. Combine the milk with the lemon juice or vinegar and stir well, letting it sit for a minute, before adding to the pancake batter. Whisk until the batter is completely smooth.
4. Slowly whisk in the melted butter.
5. Add the baking powder and baking soda and blend well.
6. Let the batter sit for 15 to 30 minutes while you heat the griddle.
7. Heat a griddle at 325 to 350 degrees or a skillet on the stove on medium heat. If either is nonstick, no additional greasing is needed. If neither are nonstick, then you’ll need to grease your pan with your preferred method.
8. Pour 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake and let it cook for a minute or two until the edges become dry. Flip and finish cooking on the other side for 30 seconds to a minute. Your pancake will rise and be golden on both side when they are done.
9. To keep the pancakes warm, put them into a glass container with a lid and put them into a preheated oven on the lowest setting (mine is 170 degrees). To cool, put them on a wire rack, and then stack them in a container to keep in the fridge. To reheat, just popped them into the toaster or in the microwave. They freeze well, too.