Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple-Glazed Nuts

Food Carved Pumpkin from Everyday Food Blog

Pumpkins are, of course, the quintessential harvest food/ingredient.  This combines them with native maple syrup, and again, we have addition of native walnuts as was the case with yesterday's recipe, along with almonds, which are native to the Middle East. Native vanilla adds to the flavoring. The recipe (and photo below) come from Cooking Club magazine (it's a pretty cool company and have all sort of things on their website).  Again, be sure to save the pumpkin seeds!  Tip:  Buy the almonds already sliced to save time.  Cooking Club suggests serving them with your favorite smokey bacon (that is if you are not a vegetarian, if so, there is always Fakin Bakin)--maple smoked bacon would be a great choice--and a crock of fresh unsalted butter.

Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple-Glazed Nuts

Nuts:

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup sliced almonds

3 tbsp. pure maple syrup

Pancakes:

1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour* (or regular whole wheat flour

   or regular white flour)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree (not sweet) or mashed cooked pumpkin

1/4 light olive oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract (my tip:  for Heaven's sake use the real stuff, you can

   read my post on Vanilla here, just read to the part of what fake vanilla

   is actually made of...that's Halloween territory for sure!)

Extra butter

Additional maple syrup, heated if liked (optional)

1.  Line small baking sheet with parchment paper.  Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet.  Add the nuts, cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring constantly.  Add the maple syrup; bring to boil over medium-high heat.  Boil 1 1/2 to 3 minutes or until the syrup is thickened and nuts are glazed, stirring constantly.  Pour into the baking sheet and let cool.

2.  Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl.  

3.  In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs well, whisk the milk, pumpkin, oil and vanilla in that order.

4.  Make a well in the flour mixture, and whisk the wet mixture into the dry.  Mix until just well blended.

5.  Heat a griddle or large non-stick pan to 350°F, melt extra butter while heating.  Brush surface with melted butter and pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto surface (my note:  if using a large griddle you can make two pancakes at once), cook around 3 minutes until edges are set (my note:  look for bubbles in the center).   Turn and cook a further 1 1/2 minutes.  Place in a heated oven.  Repeat until batter is used up.  Serve a stack of these topped with the glazed nuts and additional maple syrup

*From Cooking Club "White whole wheat flour is made from a new strain of wheat; using it produces baked goods that are lighter-tasting and light in color than those baked with regular whole wheat flour.  It has the same nutritional profile as regular whole wheat.