Pumpkin Pancakes

A couple of weeks back, I bought myself a massive £2 organic pumpkin from Twickenham farmer's market. My intention was not to carve it but to use the whole lot for pumpkin themed foodstuffs. I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, pumpkin pie and finally used the last of it to make pumpkin pancakes. I wish I could show you pictures of the cupcakes and the pie but they were gobbled up by my colleagues and my boyfriend before I could even turn the flash on!

But my favourite of the three recipes wasn't the pie as I thought it would be but this delightful pumpkin pancake recipe. I have to be honest, when I first thought the pumpkin, I didn't think I would have enough leftover to experiment with. But I had a good cupful of puree left and my Riverford box gave me the recipe for pumpkin pancakes. I didn't actually use the recipe they printed on the file instead using my own with what remaining ingredients I had. 

Like a Yorkshire Pudding, the most important thing to know about pancakes is that you need the same quantity of liquid to flour to eggs and then you can start frying! I like thicker pancakes so I add bicarbonate of soda and for added flavour, a teaspoon of yeast. Ideally you should let your pancakes rest for a while for extra flavour, but if you don't have the time that's ok too, just heat up your liquid a little so you can activate the yeast. 

I served these bad boys with a drizzle of warm honey. I ran out of cream cheese, but I bet that would be a good addition. :)

Ingredients
1 cup Pumpkin Puree (if you're making this from scratch, you need 1/3 large pumpkin, de-seeded, some flavourless cooking oil and about 30 minutes more)
1 tbsp Buttermilk (I didn't have enough pumpkin puree)
2 Eggs, beaten
1 cup Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp quick Yeast
Cooking Oil

Recipe
To make the pumpkin puree, cut your pumpkin piece into large cubes, don't worry about peeling the skin. Rub a bit of flavourless oil on them and roast in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes until softened. Take them out and leave them to cool a little bit.

When they're cool enough to handle, peel the skins off (they should come off quite easily) and put the flesh in a bowl. Mash it until it forms a pulp and then pass through a fine sieve. Don't worry if a lot of liquid comes out, you can discard this bit if you want.

To make the pancakes, add the pumpkin puree, buttermilk and eggs to a bowl. Give it a good mix to combine and then add the flour, bicarb of soda and yeast. Mix well and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes if not more.

When you're ready to cook your pancakes, heat a small frying pan with a little bit of oil. Then ladle the mixture onto the pan. Cook for about 1 minute on medium heat and then flip over for another 30 seconds on the other side.

Serve with drizzled runny honey and good cup of coffee.