Ingredients
½ cup whole-wheat flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
Directions
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
- In another bowl, stir together egg, molasses, oil and buttermilk.
- Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients; stir together lightly.
- Lightly grease a large skillet or griddle and heat over medium-high heat (350 degrees F in an electric skillet). For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot griddle.
- Cook until pancakes are puffed and dry around edges. Turn and cook the other side until golden brown.
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
Notes
- No pumpkin pie spice? Use 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon dry ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves or nutmeg.
- No buttermilk? Place 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in measuring cup and fill to the 1 cup line with milk. Stir and let set to thicken slightly.
- To see if skillet is hot enough, sprinkle with a few drops of water. If drops skitter around, heat is just right.
- Top with applesauce, fresh fruit or yogurt.
Comment
I have served Gingerbread Pancakes topped with applesauce and vanilla-flavored low-fat yogurt to literally hundreds of students and their parents. It is always a hit! The recipe doubles or quadruples successfully. It's more economical to use reconstituted non-fat dry milk, rather than purchasing buttermilk, however. Just mix the dry milk according to package directions and add 1 teaspoon vinegar per cup reconstituted milk. Let the milk stand for about 5 minutes so it begins to "sour", then add to the pancake recipe as directed.
It makes us so happy when people enjoy the recipes! Baked products are a great place to use reconstituted non-fat dry milk. To keep the sour milk in balance with the baking soda, it takes 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per cup of milk rather than 1 teaspoon. To keep from adding extra liquid, it is better to remove 1 Tablespoon of milk from the cup then add back 1 Tablespoon of the lemon juice or vinegar. It keeps the liquid and dry ingredients in balance.
These were really good -- I made them for a class, and everyone enjoyed them. I'll try the vanilla yogurt or applesauce toppings next time, as my students are conditioned to *want* something to put on pancakes (like syrup), and in good conscience, I just couldn't do the syrup thing! Good tip, thanks LavendarLady.
Additional Tip: These pancakes *do not* bubble like traditional (white flour) pancakes do -- so don't use that as your only indicator for flipping times!
These pancakes are great topped with Food Hero Pumpkin Pudding. I used all whole wheat pastry flour and vinegar with milk (1 T. vinegar, add milk to equal one cup) in place of buttermilk. The final product was well received.
This recipe is mind blowing
Have made these (or the Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes) several times for kids afterschool cooking for our "veggie pancakes" class. Some kids are hesitant to try pumpkin, but the wonderful smell of the spices while cooking makes them eager for taste tests. These pancakes tend to cook up a little dark, so maybe lower the heat?
You're right, it the pancake is too brown, lower the heat a little. It's always great to do a test pancake to check the actual setting needed to get nicely browned outsides with moist but baked centers. Stoves and electric griddles or skillets do not have dials that are easy to set precisely.
The Food Hero Team
Wow, such a great recipe! Everyone in our house loved it! We topped it with the super easy and yummy Food Hero Any Berry Sauce. We want to try it again using a metal gingerbread man cookie cutter on the pan to give them shape.