Pumpkin Pancakes

Fall has turned into being all about that squash, that squash being pumpkin. But I still think of fall as apple season. Late in September my maternal family would head up to Edward's Orchard to go apple picking, buy apple cider, and eat the absolute best apple cider doughnuts. To me fall is all about harvesting apples. But sometimes you buy a pie pumpkin (for the seeds of course) at the store and end up with quarts of fresh roasted pumpkin puree. So, here's a recipe for pumpkin pancakes!

Various Winter Squashes in Various Forms

Pumpkin Pancakes
Makes about fifteen two tablespoon of batter pancakes

3 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 cup whole wheat flout
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch to 1/8 teaspoon cloves (optional)

Grease and heat the pan on medium. Mix liquid ingredients and sugar. Mix the dry ingredients. Gently mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add the batter to the pan. Flip when bubbles form in the batter and the bottom of the pancake is brownish.

Inspired by Mark Bittman's Everyday Pancakes (his pancake making instructions are the best if you need more detail than I've provided) and Eagle Brand's Pumpkin Pie.

I hope you enjoy,
EAH


PS I'm sorry about my spotty posting. I try to post Tuesdays and Thursday and I was able to do that before our kiddos joined us. I will definitely be posting every Thursday (because when I realize that I've forgotten on Tuesday, I'm extra motivated to get a post scheduled for Thursday).

Blueberry Pecan Oatmeal Muffins

Muffins taste better when shaped like doughnuts.
I swear it tastes and smelled so much better than it looked.

Ingredients
4 eggs
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup skim milk
1 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1 1/2 cups oatmeal

2/3 cup pecan pieces
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
Warm milk and apple sauce in microwave oven. Mix first group of ingredients. Let sit for 10 minutes so the oats will soften. Then gently mix in the remaining ingredients. Bake at 375º for 22 minutes. Makes approximately 30 muffins.

I used Multigrain Hot Cereal because Hubs bought some and then didn't like it and I didn't like it much either so I used it up in this mash up of my plane old boring oatmeal muffin recipe. I also mashed the blueberries because I don't like chunks of fruit. I mixed the frozen blueberries in with the warm milk and applesauce so they would defrost and I wouldn't have to adjust the cooking time.

3.1g added sugar

Maple Syrup Bread

This is an expensive recipe since Maple Syrup is the most expensive thing I ever buy. I modified Mark Bitmman's "Quick Whole Wheat and Mollasaes Bread" to get this recipe because I really, really can't stand molasses and it turned out great!

I'll pretend I made it in honor of Maple Sunday here in Maine (a couple of weeks ago now). This year's been a bad year for the maple syrup makers. The farmers tap the tress but they need cold nights and warm days in order for the sap to flow in the trees. It's been so cold during the day that the sap isn't flowing so there was hardly any maple syrup from this year for Maple Sunday.

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. milk warmed (microwaved for a minute) (or if you have it, butter milk)
2 T vinegar, white (apple cider vinegar or lemon juice would likely work as well)
1/2 c. maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
1 t salt
1 t baking soda (box)

Instructions: Make "buttermilk" by mixing 1 1/2 c. warm milk with 2 T white vinegar. Let the "buttermilk" rest, it will curdle a bit and that is okay. Combine the dry ingredients. Add 1/2 c. maple syrup and the butter milk. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 325º for one hour. (I always turn my baked goods around in the oven when they're halfway done.)

Hubs loved this. It was a very hearty bread and it was more like regular bread with yeast than like other quick breads. FYI Hubs thinks its snobby to say and prefer maple syrup over pancake syrup. But I think that's just being accurate since Maple syrup is made from tree sap and pancake syrup is maple flavored corn syrup. I can notice a real difference between the texture of two and I assume maple syrup is better for me because its less processed than pancake syrup.

I've been getting nutrition facts for my recipes from Calorie Counts' Recipe Analyzer. You copy and past a recipe in to the text field and it generates nutrition facts like the above for you! I also use MyFitnessPal to count calories and they have changed their Recipes section to make it easier to use! If you found a recipe on a website, it lets you import it by just copying and paying the URL. With both you'll likely have to clean up the recipe before it's finalized but both of these make it so much easier to keep track of calories and other nutrients when you cook from scratch.

Enjoy!

Apple Crisp in a Pie

We buy apples when they're on sale. Sometime we get more than we can eat before they get yucky. When they get yucky I chop them up, add sugar, and cook them! Also, we had whipped cream that we needed to use up.

This recipe is a mix of my grandma's apple crisp recipe, my mother-in-law's apple crisp recipe, and Muffy at the Daily Prep's apple pie recipe (I really like this crust recipe because it does not have butter).

Ingredients

Crust

1/2 cup white flour
3/8 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (don't leave out)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/8 cup milk

Filling

6 or so apples peeled and diced

1/2 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats (I used quick oats)

1/2 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

Grease pie plate. Mix ingredients for pie crust and roll out between waxed or parchment paper. Put crust in pie plate, it will be crumbly. Peel and chop apples. (I prefer my apple pieces very tiny.) Mix apple pieces with sugar and cinnamon.  Mix dry ingredients for the topping. Cut cold butter into 6 or more pieces and cut into topping. Add apples to the pie crust and cover with topping. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until apples are soft.

Update: This pie is just as good with half the sugar.

Step by Step Photos

My apple peeler in action.

The apples in the crust.

Making the topping.

The Finished Topping

Ready to Go into the Oven!