Poetry In A Pot Of Tea: maple syrup

Piping hot off the griddle, I can think of few things as comforting and delicious as pancakes in the morning! And since it is November, why not welcome the autumn dawn with pumpkin pancakes? Whether you call them pancakes, griddle cakes, hot cakes or flapjacks, they are perfect with hot tea and some authentic maple syrup. Though our days are still quite warm, the mornings have been a wee bit chilly and I decided to cook up some pumpkin pancakes today. I got the following recipe from All Recipes.com~

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 and 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 TB vegetable oil

2 TB vinegar

2 cups all purpose flour

3 TB brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon each allspice & cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon each ground ginger and salt

Combine dry ingredients, set aside.

Place milk, pumpkin, oil, vinegar and egg in a food processor. (or bowl) Pulse dry ingredients into the wet mixture. (or stir flour mixture into milk mixture) Do not over stir. Heat lightly oiled griddle over medium high heat. Pour batter onto griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.

I cut the recipe in half and it made 8 fluffy pancakes about four inches in diameter. I also substituted a couple of tablespoons of rice protein powder for some of the all purpose flour- just to add a bit of protein. One online reviewer suggested adding an extra egg for increased fluffiness, but since I halved the recipe one egg was a bit extra. Haha! I also added some fresh ground nutmeg to the batter. The pancakes had a wonderful texture and density, they were not flat or rubbery. They were not too sweet, either.

My family thinks I'm a bit nutty and I am! Gotta add some chopped and toasted pecans or walnuts to make the pancakes extra yummy in my book. If your breakfast companions prefer pancakes sans nuts, just sprinkle them onto the pancakes on the griddle, otherwise mix the nuts into the batter.

I could hardly wait to take the photo so I could tuck in! Did you know~

Each tablespoon of pure maple syrup contains 21 mg calcium,35 mg potassium, only 2 mg sodium, small amounts of iron, and phosphorus and a trace of B vitamins.
In any standard recipe, maple syrup may be substituted for all or part of the sugar required. When using syrup, reduce the liquid in the recipe by 3 tbsp. for each cup of syrup used.
Unopened containers of maple syrup should be stored in a cool dry place. Once opened, maple syrup should be refrigerated. Long term storage in the freezer is recommended.
Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree, and only about 10% of the tree’s sap is collected each year. Many sugar maple trees have been tapped for 150 or more years.
30-50 gallons of sap are evaporated to make one gallon of syrup. The syrup is boiled even further to produce cream, sugar and candy. It takes one gallon (11lbs.) of syrup to produce 8 lbs. of candy.
Warm, sunny days and frosty nights are ideal for Sap flow. The harvest season ends with the coming of spring’s warm nights and the first stages of bud development on the trees.