Awesome Pumpkin Pancakes

So good… especially with a little bit of melted butter.

You have to try these pancakes!  Jenna, from Eat, Live, Run has been blogging over at PBS lately, and recently included this recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes.  Since I discovered this recipe, I’ve made it twice!  These pancakes are a great quick meal with a high satisfaction factor (without a ton of guilt).  The pumpkin adds a bit of fiber and vitamins.  Aside from the chocolate, there is no added sugar (that’s a good thing!), but they are still SO tasty.    I prefer mine with a bit of melted butter.  You could add maple syrup, of course, but they are just fine on their own!

A single recipe makes 4 decent sized pancakes (2 of them fill me up!).  These also reheat well, so I think it is worth it to double the recipe and avoid having leftover pumpkin!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes
slightly adapted from Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients:

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon if grated)
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) ground ginger (I just love ginger!)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter (melted)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 to 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

 
How to Make Them:

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
3. In a small bowl, mix together milk, egg, melted butter, pumpkin puree, and chocolate chips.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until barely combined.  Do not overmix!!!
5. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes.  When it is almost ready, add a little bit of butter to coat the bottom of the pan.  Wait for it to melt.
6. Scoop pancakes into skillet (I like to use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to keep them roughly the same size).
7. Cook for about 4 minutes/side, or until done.

 

Note:  You can keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven while you finish cooking the rest of the batch.  Simply preheat your oven to 200º F while you are mixing the batter together, and then turn it off.  As you finish cooking the pancakes, put them on an oven safe plate, cookie sheet, or cooling rack inside the oven until you are ready to serve.

I hope you give these a try – this recipe is definitely a keeper.  In fact, I might make it again for dinner again tonight!

 

P.S.  Pancakes, whether something like this, traditional pancakes, or protein pancakes, are REALLY easy to portion out if you are trying to count/track/measure calories or points.  I like this recipe because it is filling, has a reasonable amount of points (especially if you stick to the lower end of measurement for the chocolate chips), and doesn’t feel like “diet food.”