Pumpkin Pancakes

The finale to a picture-perfect and relaxing autumn weekend with my parents was a good, hearty breakfast. Kyle and I haven't made pancakes in ages and since he asked for chocolate chip pancakes this morning, I thought I'd take it a step further and use my improv skills with the help of the can of pumpkin puree that has been calling me from my cupboard for weeks.

Weeks? You ask? Yes, weeks. I've had so many pumpkiny foods that I've been yearning to make but either my time runs out or I can't decide what to make so I've ended up not making anything...until today.

It was during the middle of mass at church this morning when I had what you might call an epiphany (of sorts) and I suppose the timing of it was fitting, considering where I was and what I was doing. Why not pumkin pancakes?? Is what I said to myself...and thus my great idea was born. I planned out the recipe on the ride home (yes, I was able to redirect my attention to the mass) and got started as soon as I got home.

The first batch that came off the electric griddle were plain pancakes with chocolate chips for Kyle...then came just plain pancakes...then I added 1/4 cup pumpkin, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg to the remaining amount of batter (maybe 1/4 of the total amount of batter) and I started to see what I had in my mind come alive. The batter alone smelled wonderful and my parents started hovering once they started to cook. To the last 2 pumpkin pancakes to go on the griddle, I added a few chocolate chips for good measure and these turned out to be les pieces de resistance.

Holy moly were these pumpkin pancakes (with and without chocolate chips) incredible!! So incredible that, based again on the number of "mmms" I heard this morning, they I expect they will end up on our post-church breakfast table again very soon (yes, that means that although he was skeptical of the idea of pumpkin pancakes, Kyle loved them too).