Homemade: Apple Pumpkin Pancakes

My son likes pancakes. No, seriously… He likes pancakes. A lot. He would eat them every single day for breakfast, if I let him. Which for him is in itself very awesome because the child don’t like to eat… as a general rule, it seems. You can imagine that making meals for him is usually a task, because to someone who likes to cook like his mama, there’s nothing more upsetting than seeing a barely-picked-at plate and then having to *shudder* “force feed”.

Breakfast is especially trying. You know you want your children to go to school  with nice full tummies so they can focus and learn well. And then you get a child like mine, who not only isn’t fussy about eating, but is a picky eater to boot!

But he does love him some pancakes! So whenever I have the time to make them on mornings, I make sure that I increase his nutritional intake by incorporating some kind of vegetable or fruit whenever I make the batter. It’s also a win-win situation for me as well, because I don’t have as noticeable an allergic type reaction to the flour when I add in the extra healthy goodness. So take that, you crippling sinus you!

Apple Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup of pancake batter (I use plain ol’ Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Pancake Mix)
1 1/2 cups of pumpkin, peeled and diced
4 Gala apples, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp Vanilla Essence

Cook the pumpkin and the gala apples in a steamer. In the blender, pour the pancake batter, then add the pumpkin and apples. Blend until smooth and creamy or until you get your preferred batter consistency. You can always add more dry pancake mix to thicken. You should now have about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of batter, depending on how watery your pumpkin was or how thick you wanted the batter to be.

Heat the pan or griddle over medium heat. Add a tsp of butter in the pan and drop the batter to make pancakes about 3 inches in diameter (or use about a quarter cup of batter if you’re making them adult sized). Cook until bubbles begin to form uniformly around the pancake; flip and continue to cook until golden brown. Repeat.

To be honest, this usually gives me about 20 mini pancakes (3 inches in diameter). I make them smaller than what would be normal adult-sized so that they are easier for my son to manage on his own. Sometimes I even make them 1 or even 2 inch in diameter, all depends on my mood and how much batter we actually have on hand.

My son has given this particular recipe two thumbs up!! Now, he only ever wants pumpkin pancakes… especially when he can get to smother them in syrup. And it’s great because pumpkin isn’t so hard to find in Barbados; the supermarkets been having a large constant supply of pumpkin since about March/April and I like to use it as a secret ingredient to most of my baked goods, like chocolate cake and cheesecake (yup, all the stuff I love, but makes my sinuses go haywire for days). It may just be in my head, but the snorting and the sneezing doesn’t come as fast when the pumpkin’s in the mix. So that makes me very happy. Even if I’m only imagining it.

It’s the first day back to school tomorrow for the majority of public school students in Barbados. Can you guess what tomorrow’s breakfast will be? He’s already put in an order too!