Jack O Lantern Pancakes
Light and fluffy pumpkin pancakes perfect for any fall breakfast - or dinner!
My idea began with this creative everyday take on pancakes: Trix Pancakes from Shawn @ I Wash You Dry
But we don't routinely have brightly colored cereal in our cupboard. So I tried to arrange Cheerios to make my pumpkin pancakes look like Jack-O-Lanterns:
#Fail
Then I tried using Crisped Rice; but the pancake Jack-O-Lantern came out looking more like a scary skeleton:
(Not really the look I was going for.)
So I tried raisins with a little green stem - and the third time was a charm:
To make the green stem, I started with regular food coloring in a bit of pumpkin pancake batter. Now my kids eat very few food dyes. (Here’s a great article by fellow dietitian Sally @ Real Mom Nutrition if you have concerns about dyes.) But I do keep store-bought food coloring on-hand for birthday cakes and holidays.
However, by this time, my pumpkin pancake creative juices were running pretty high – so I tried doing a natural green food coloring for the stem. Frozen green peas ==> whizzed into a little batter provided the perfect hue. The peas were sweet enough that you couldn’t taste them. The trick to keeping them bright green is not to cook them – just defrost.
Lastly, because I was really having fun in the kitchen – and because not everyone wants peas in their pancakes – AND because I thought there might still be something to the cereal pancakes idea – I created Granola Pumpkin Pancakes.
Oh man - now this was #Winning
Cinnamon-spiced granola in slightly sweet pumpkin pancakes: My kids gobbled up the smiling Jack O Lantern Pancakes, while I did the same to the granola studded ones.
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Jack O Lantern Pancakes + Granola Pumpkin Pancakes
- Yield: About 25 pancakes - I sorta lost count! 1x
Description
Light and fluffy pumpkin pancakes studded with granola and raisins for breakfast - or dinner!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cake flour (or all purpose)
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 cups + 1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk, divided
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons frozen peas
- ½ cup raisins
- ½-¾ cup homemade or packaged granola
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, salt; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, 2 cups buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla; whisk together.
- Pour the wet ingredients into flour mixture; mix well with a fork or wooden spoon until you have a smooth batter, but don't over mix.
- To make green batter, remove ½ cup batter to a smaller bowl. Whiz peas and remaining buttermilk in mini-food processor or blender; stir into smaller bowl of batter.
- Heat large non-stick griddle or frying pan over medium heat; drop about ⅛ cup batter onto pan. Drop small spoonful of green batter on one edge for stem; arrange raisins into 'face.' Flip after all bubbles in batter pop - about 3 minutes. Cook about another 2 minutes and remove to plate or keep warm.
- Variation: For Granola Pumpkin Pancakes, fold in granola into medium bowl of orange batter after combining wet and dry ingredients. Can also make them Granola Jack O Lantern Pancakes!
Do you add cereal to recipes? Everyone HAS to make them once a season: Pumpkin Pancakes - have you made them yet this year?
Some of our favorite pumpkin recipes that you may also like:
How to Cook Pumpkin Seeds in 15 Minutes
You totally win for best mom/cutest pancake maker ever!! Obsessed with these 🙂
Ha! Wow - love the vote of confidence as my 9 y old was stomping around the house tonight after having to do ALL the dishes. (like 8 dishes!)
Those are too cute! Your "fail" pictures are too funny. I should have taken pics of some of my failed Boo-nana Pops I just posted. haha. But when it comes to making/decorating food with your kids, they don't care too much how perfect they look. They just have fun with it! I will have to make these in the future when my little one is a older next year. Thanks 🙂
Oh...#LOVE failed photos. Yes, yes, please post next time Karli! And thanks for stopping by again!
SO CUTE! I like the scary skeleton 😉
Hee, hee. so did my son, Rebecca! You two are two peas in a pod!
Adorable! I have to say my girls would want to use chocolate chips though!
Forehead slap Marjory. I totally should've suggested chocolate chips! Thank you!
Oh my kids would love those! I have not got out the pumpkin yet- what is wrong with me??!
You have 15 days Melanie! My kids are counting! (:
I agree..the #FAIL pictures are hilarious! I'm a total cheater and bought some silicone pancake molds at W&S yesterday! All their Halloween stuff was on sale and I couldn't pass them up:-) Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin pancakes are on tap for tomorrow!
So great! Perfect for Halloween breakfast since Halloween is also a Saturday this year! Wooooo!
Good point Rebecca...and I can't believe none of my 4 kids pointed that out yet...since ALL they've been talking about for weeks and weeks is Halloween...and which costume they will be!
These are so cute!! 🙂
Thanks Tara. Happy pumpkin-everything month Tara!
What an awesome idea! Love the use of peas!
Thanks Jessica! They are a surprisingly great dye for the pumpkin stem!
I mean, could these be any cuter!!! Great idea!
Are you talking about the flops - or the funny, pretty good ones? (: Thanks Sara!
Hi serena,
We all love lantern pancakes. I will apply your presentation tomorrow. What can i use instead of canola oil. Thanks for excellent sharing.
You can use olive oil or melted butter in place of canola oil. Thanks for stopping by!