This morning I gave my final salute to fall. Since we here at the house have catapulted ourselves into the holiday frenzy this weekend, it is time to kiss Thanksgiving....and fall...goodbye. This afternoon we turn our house into a holiday wonderland.
My send-off was in the form of Pumpkin Pancakes. Last time I was in Chicago visiting my dear friends, we went to M . Henry (5707 N. Clark St.) and I had the most amazing Pumpkin pancake dish that I decided to try to recreate it. What better send-off to fall than this!?
I started by making a filling of sorts to layer between the pancakes. When I had it at M. Henry the menu described the filling as a mascarpone maple mixture....so that's what I did. I took about 1 cup of mascarpone cheese and 1/3 cup of pure maple syrup (not Mrs. Butterworth's - but real maple syrup). It seemed a bit too tart to me upon tasting, so I added a teaspoon of sugar. Then I took a jar of Hershey's caramel ice cream topping and poured it into a squeeze bottle (You don't have to be as anal as me. Feel free to just drizzle it over the pancakes with a spoon when the time comes.) I also chopped some pecans for sprinkling over the top.
I set all of that aside and began making the pancakes, This is the recipe I used.
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable oil
Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Whisk milk, pumpkin, egg yolks, melted butter and vanilla in medium bowl to blend well. Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients; whisk just until smooth (batter will be thick). Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter in 2 additions.
Brush large nonstick skillet with oil; heat over medium heat. Working in batches, pour batter by 1/3 cupfuls into skillet. Cook until bubbles form on surface of pancakes and bottoms are brown, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining batter, brushing skillet with oil between batches. Makes about 12.
When the pancakes were done, I plated them individually by laying 3 pancakes on the plate, adding a healthy dollop of the mascarpone filling and topping it off with another pancake. Then, I used the squeeze bottle to make a nice caramel design on top. Topped it off with a sprinkling of chopped pecans and VOILA! Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes!
Dave and the kids (well, Sarah at least) seemed to enjoy them.
Ok I gotta dash. We're off to the mall to embrace the spirit of holiday capitalism. More later.
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