A Fall Inspired Recipe: Squash Pancakes

Today I took an early morning walk.  The weather was beautiful ....not too hot nor too cold, a bit overcast, perfect for fall.  Upon my return, I decided to make a fall  inspired breakfast.

Thankfully, my neighbors had given me a squash, which was going to be the main ingredient in my warm and cozy fall repertoire of edible arrangements.  

[caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="713"] Squash[/caption]

This decision was met with the not so pleasant cries of my kids, who said that the squash would be better in soup.  But I was determined to use it for pancakes.  I just knew that those remarkable gold overtones in the squash would just brighten up any pancake. Not to mention, my most important hidden agenda was the added vitamins that I knew those fall inspired pancakes would provide. So I carried on and ignored their pleas.

My squash was a bit hard to peel.  But I took my time and I used a sharp knife and a vegetable peeler to get the job done.  Then I cut it up into smaller pieces; after which I boiled it until it was nice and tender. When it was cooked, I took some of the pieces out, placed them on a plate, smashed them with a fork and I placed the plate of hot squash in the refrigerator to cool down.

Saturday morning pancakes are my specialty.  We have a big breakfast each and every Saturday. I have been using Martha Stewart's basic pancake recipe for such a long time now that it feels like my own.  This fall inspired pancake recipe is my twist on Martha's classic.  More importantly I changed things up a bit to make it a healthier version.  In fact, I changed it so much that at times it doesn't resemble Martha's at all.

While my squash was cooling, I prepared the dry ingredients.

• 2 cups of flour (I use 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 cup of white)


• 4 teaspoons of baking powder


• 1 teaspoon of salt


• 4 tablespoons of sugar


• 1/2 cup of uncooked oatmeal (added for extra fiber, not found in Martha's classic recipe)


• 1/4 cup of flax-seed meal (added for extra fiber, not found in Martha's classic recipe)


• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (added for fall inspired warmth :)


• 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin spice (added for fall inspired warmth :)

These dry ingredients were mixed with a spatula until they were well dispersed throughout and this is how it looked.

[caption id="attachment_184" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dry Ingredients of fall inspired pancake recipe[/caption]

As an aside, the flax-seed meal used in my recipe was grounded in my Vitamix.  

[caption id="attachment_189" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Ground Flax-seed using Vitamix[/caption]

I had the seeds and decided that it was just as easy to grind it myself rather than buying the meal.  In the bag are the seeds and in the bowl is the meal, when it came out of the VitaMix. You can skip this step all together by not adding flax-seed or you can buy the meal.  I prefer buying the seed and grinding it myself. 

The wet ingredients are:

• 2 eggs


• 4 tablespoons of olive oil


• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence


• 1 teaspoon of almond essence 


• Rice milk (or any milk, I chose rice milk to reduce the fat)

I don't give a measurement for the milk because I just add until it is the consistency of pancake batter.  Remember the more milk you add the thinner your pancakes will be; if you want thicker denser pancakes, then add less milk.  A good rule of thumb is to add a cup of milk for every cup of flour. 

Add all of your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and mix well.  Do not over mix because it can make your pancakes tough.

When the wet and dry ingredients were thoroughly mixed, then and only then did I add my well cooled squash to the batter.  Mix again, but not too much.   And then I fried my pancakes.

The results were scrumptious.

[caption id="attachment_182" align="aligncenter" width="640"] a single bite of pancake with squash[/caption]

Fall is a wonderful time of year, the cool weather, the niceness of neighbors sharing their bountiful harvest, the crisp air,  all good things. Life is good :)

I look forward to sharing with you more fall recipes.  Let me know if you make this one.........