Yesterday me and the girls did a DIY brunch and we all made something to bring to the table. I went for delicious fresh pumpkin pancakes, which made me remember that I've had some pictures ready for a blogpost on these for the longest time. I love baking and cooking with pumpkin - it's definitely one of my very favourite vegetables! I've tried using canned pumpkin once, but that wasn't that big of a success.. I like making my own pumpkin puree with fresh vegetables. It does take some preparation time, but it's well worth the time, I promise..


First up you'll want to make your pumpkin puree. It's pretty simple! If you can get cubed pumpkin at the grocery store it's really easy as you'll just have to toss all the pumpkin pieces in an ungreased baking tray (you want this puree to be as pure as possible) and bake them for about 45 minutes on 180°C, or until they're so tender you can mash them up with a fork. If you're chopping up your own pumpkin you'll do exactly that, but after the 45 minutes you'll have to scrape the pumpkin meat from the peel, and toss the peel. When you're left with nothing but pumpkin meat, you can mash it with a potato masher like I do, or for a less chunky dough you can puree it with a food processor. This is your own fresh pumkin puree!

Then, things are really simple. Yesterday I based my recipe on this one by Glued To My Crafts I found online, but I used a little less milk because I find that fresh pumpkin puree contains more 'fluids'. In one bowl I mixed up 2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (I like to use the brownest possible - it's so yum), a tablespoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt & lots of ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg (or a bit less, it depends on how you like it spiced). In another bowl, I mix the pumpkin puree (mine was about a cup, not pressed), 1 1/3 cups of milk (this is less than the original recipe), 2 eggs and some vegetable oil (again, a little less than the recipe). First you mix everything together in each separate bowl, and then you mix both bowls together until everything comes together nicely without big doughy chunks.

It's important to bake your pancakes on medium heat (on a pancake pan with anti stick coating) so they don't burn on the sides while still being gooey inside. I give them about 30 seconds on each side - but I do like thin pancakes. If you like them thicker like american pancakes usually are, they'll need a little more time on each side. I like adding toppings of course - fresh whipped vanilla cream, maple syrup & some fresh blueberries is definitely a killer combination. Breakfast or brunch never tasted this good!