I was filling time looking at recipes last night and a pumpkin pancake one caught my eye. It was an American recipe using pumpkin puree, which seems to be hitting our shops in tins at the moment. Yet it’s really easy to make up fresh and with my bumper squash harvest this year, I’ve got plenty to play with. Mixed with the right spices it becomes a delicious sweetly spiced puree that is crying out to be used in sweet recipes.
So here is my take on the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pancake craze.
The Puree
Pumpkins and squashes I think are pretty much interchangeable. I’ve been using crown prince squash in place of pumpkin, and butternut squash can be used as well. To make a sweet puree I cut the squash into big chunks (like big watermelon slices) take out the seeds but keep the skin on. Then put the chunks into a roasting tin, add some small dollops of coconut oil and roast for around 20-30 mins until really tender. The use of coconut oil keeps the sweet theme, you could use olive oil, but I would avoid vegetable oil or any other more savoury flavoured oil.
Once cool, slice the flesh off the skin and put into a food processor. Blend for around 20 seconds into a soft puree.
You can add the spices here as well – roughly 1 teaspoon of mixed spice to every 100g of skinned squash – just blend it in for 1-2 seconds then the puree is ready spiced to use. The puree will keep in the fridge for a few days.
Spiced Squash Pancakes (serves 2 – makes 4 -5 pancakes)
- 60g spelt flour (or wholemeal)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 40g oats
- Pinch salt
- 125ml milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (more for drizzling over the cooked pancakes)
- 8g melted butter (more to grease the frying pan)
- 100g squash puree with 1 teaspoon mixed spice
Method
- Mix the flour, baking powder, oats and salt into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl whisk the milk, egg, maple syrup, butter, puree and spice, until well combined. Add this mix to the flour mix and whisk to combine.
- In a small frying pan, add a small knob of butter and melt this to coat the pan. Once melted add a ladle of the pancake mixture. Cook for around 2-3 minutes per side.
Enjoy with some raisins or sultanas, yoghurt and more maple syrup.
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