A Heavenly Way To Use Leftovers

After making those Pumpkin-Apple muffins, a few weeks ago, I still had half a can of pumpkin puree leftover. I am so anal about letting food go to waste (too many times at the dinner table when I was a kid hearing… “you can’t leave the table until you clean your plate.. don’t you know all the starving children that would love to have that plate of food). Since then it literally kills a piece of me if I have to through out any food that has gone bad.

Because of this, I am constantly looking for ways to use ingredients in new ways or spruce up leftovers. When I saw that I had over a cup of pumpkin puree left over I went on a hut to find an awesome pumpkin recipe, since I thought those muffins didn’t really cut it. I combed my cookbooks, I combed the blogs and food websites. I found hundreds and thousands of pumpkin recipes. I went through each and every one looking for just the right recipe; and well the recipe that called for just 1 cup of pumpkin puree (cuz that is what I had) and did not require me going to the store to buy any additional ingredients that I did not already have on had. For hours upon hours I read through those thousand and thousand of recipes… ohhhing and ahhing, drooling, and dreaming of eating every single recipe (and then envisioning how many miles I would have to run to only try and keep off all the pounds that I gained from just LOOKING at all those recipes)!

And then, after all that I remember one recipe. One delightful, and scrumptious, melt in my mouth perfect pumpkin recipe. I knew it would taste just like this and I hadn’t even tried it yet. I immediately headed over to the blog The Sister’s Cafe and found this recipe for these pumpkin pancakes and apple cider syrup that they had posted back in November. This was it. This was the one. After all that searching I was going to make THIS pumpkin recipe. And it was a good thing I did, for my taste buds sake. These pancakes were delicious. Just the right combination of spices and pumpkin. But what really set these pumpkin pancakes off was the apple cider syrup. This syrup and these pancakes were a match made in heaven. Pure yummy in my tummy heaven. I could have drunk that whole pan of syrup all by it’s self and been completely satisfied; but I didn’t, I just drenched these pancakes in it.

***Notes: I halved this recipe and it made a lot of pancakes. About 1 1/4 cup of syrup and 10 pancakes; so heed this advice when you go to make these on whether you need a full batch or a half. I did make a few changes to the original recipe so my version is below. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

2 cups flour
3 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground all spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In one bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Combine dry ingredients separately and them stir into pumpkin mixture just until combined. Heat your pan or griddle (lightly butter or oil if it is not seasoned), using about 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot with apple cider syrup.

Apple Cider Syrup
(Perfect over Pumpkin Pancakes)

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups fresh apple cider (or juice would work)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Mix sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg well. Add apple cider and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, use within a week or two.

Both recipies adapted from The Sister’s Cafe