Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

In my attempt to learn more about the Paleo style of eating, I’ve been excited to try out some new recipes using ingredients I’ve never used before.  This weekend, I picked up a couple things at the grocery store with that in mind, and my first, kind of haphazard attempt was these cupcakes. 

But this morning, all I could think about was pumpkin pancakes.

There’s a really simple recipe for them in my Practical Paleo book (which doubles as a textbook and a cookbook), so I gave it a shot.  It was super, super easy, took all of five minutes, and was absolutely delicious.  I honestly don’t think I’ll ever make pancakes from a box again.

I basically followed the recipe in the book, but ended up tweaking it once I realized the batter was a little thin.  I don’t think you can mess this one up, so if your batter doesn’t seem to be the right texture, just throw a little more of this or that in to get it to where you want it to be. 

I didn’t really measure anything (I rarely do), but here’s my best guess at what I ended up using:

• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus more sprinkled on the pancakes while they were in the pan)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 1/8 cup of coconut flour (this isn’t in the original recipe, but for some reason, my batter was way too runny, so I added it until the batter thickened up a bit, and it worked out well)

All you have to do is whisk the ingredients together and pour it onto a hot pan or griddle which has been greased with butter or coconut oil – just like you would with regular pancakes!

The above ingredients make about 8 small pancakes, or two servings.  I had half today and saved half for another day… they are going to make amazing toaster pancakes!

This morning, I topped them with fresh sliced strawberries and a little bit of real maple syrup.  The original recipe lists maple syrup as an optional ingredient for the batter, but I’d much rather have it on top than inside, so that’s what I went with.  I did notice that these ‘cakes soaked it all up in about two seconds flat though, so maybe it wouldn’t have even mattered if I’d just put it in the batter originally. They weren’t nearly as dry as regular pancakes, so it’s not like you needed to dunk them in syrup anyway!

When I mentioned this recipe to my mom last weekend, she immediately made a face and said she didn’t really like pumpkin… I’d be willing to bet that she’d like these bad boys though.  They really didn’t taste like pumpkin all that much (more just like cinnamon and spice), and they seriously melt in your mouth.  Add to that the fact that they are made with 100% REAL foods, and I don’t know who wouldn’t like them!

Questions:

Have you ever tried pumpkin pancakes?  What did you think? 

Do you like maple syrup on your pancakes or do you use something else?  I love maple syrup on all pancakes unless they are of the chocolate chip variety.  Then, they are just topped with butter and that’s it. 

Do you have any yummy Paleo recipes to share?