Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Pancakes

The pumpkin party continues, with breakfast the focus today.   On a cold rainy morning (perhaps while you hunker down before the power goes out during a hurricane?) these rich, lightly spiced pancakes do the trick.   When you add pumpkin to pancakes, there is no doubt that you must let go of any hope that your pancakes will be light and fluffy - pumpkin inevitably brings some denseness to the pancake party.  But while you lose some of that elusive pancake fluffiness, you gain a real depth of flavor.  After all, aren't plain ol pancakes not much more than a vehicle for maple syrup?  Not these things, while they are light on the sugar, the pumpkin flavor really comes through, as does the pumpkin pie spice. And about that pumpkin pie spice, I usually am against using "pumpkin pie spice" and like to carefully put together the right amounts of each of the key spices - nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, etc... but with these pancakes and some other recipes I made for pumpkin week I took the shortcut and used a good quality pumpkin pie spice (penzeys), but when it comes time to make my thanksgiving pies, I will go back to the old fashioned way of a pinch of this and a pinch of that.
These pancakes I adapted from Nigella Lawson, who, strangely, didn't include any spices whatsoever in her recipe!  That just seemed strange to me, as the best part of any pumpkin sweet, in my opinion, are the spices.  So I added some.  For me, pancakes are a little too much effort (and carbs and calories) for everyday, but these are a great fall weekend treat!

Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes, adapted from Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 15-oz can pumpkin purée
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Vegetable oil or butter for cooking

 Directions:

1. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla in a medium bowl.
2. Add the pumpkin and whisk to combine.
3. In another medium bowl combine the dry ingredients.
4. Whisk together the wet and dry ingredients.
5. Heat a small amount of butter or oil in a large skillet over medium low heat.
6. When the pan is hot, place about 1/3 of a cup of batter into pan and spread out to form a circle.
7. Cook on medium low heat until air bubbles appear on the pancake.  Flip, cook for 2 - 3 minutes more on the opposite side.
8. Cover cooked pancakes with foil until ready to serve.
9. Serve with butter and maple syrup!