A few weeks ago I was given a copy of Kenny Shopsin’s new cookbook, which is an adventure just to read, much less cook out of.  His section on pancakes is particularly inspiring, and includes some great ideas (mac and cheese pancakes anyone?)

He also uses a basic frozen pancake batter, and doctors it as needed – he argues it’s the griddle and the technique that really matter when it comes down to great pancakes.

Nursing my post-Halloween hangover, I set about making a batch of pumpkin pancakes.  I consulted Kenny’s recipe, as well as the Joy of Cooking’s basic pancake recipe, and set about trying to make a great pumpkin pancake. I also knew I’d be drawing on the advice of Jim Koch and using beer in the batter as well. I opted for an Oktoberfest, since it’s seasonal, light malt, and I happened to have it on hand. You really won’t taste the beer in the final product, but it provides a great background addition to the flavors, as well as acts as leavener to the heavy pancake batter.

This recipe is something of an adventure, and I’ve been playing with it to get the proportions just right. I removed an egg from the original recipe to balance out the pumpkin (I wanted a lot of pumpkin) and spiced it aggressively with cinnamon and nutmeg. Once combined, it seemed a little too thick still, so i loosened it with additional milk (you could use more beer – but I was making a double recipe, and didn’t want to open another bottle.)  Use your judgement, make a test pancake, and adjust accordingly.  This recipe is assembled using the Alton Brown Good Eats method: combine the wet team and dry team separately, then bring together using as little stirring as possible.  I found that these needed to be cooked a little lower, and turned when the tops are still aren’t set yet.  The resulting pancake is slightly cakier than usual – but very rich from the pumpkin mash.

Dry Team:
1 1/2 cups AP Flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon & nutmeg to taste (i like a lot)

Wet Team:
6 oz Beer
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 can pumpkin
1/4 cup heavy cream
~1/2 cup milk (if needed to thin batter, or more beer)

Of course, these rich pumpkin discs of joy needed a little something extra to put it over the top.  I whipped some cream, and then flavored it with a dash of vanilla extract, a few shots of bourbon and a bit of maple syrup to sweeten the whole thing.  Mmmmmm… Bourbon maple cream.  Is there anything this doesn’t go great on?

Serve with a big pot of coffee, eggs with runny yolks, pecans, and a bit of fresh fruit to make it seem like a healthy breakfast – I had the last strawberries and the first persimmons of the fall season (both of which were delicious with the bourbon maple whipped cream.)

Tags: brunch, pancakes, pumpkin

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.