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We are so excited that Halloween is around the corner. Can you tell by our pancakes? One look into these Jack -o’-lantern faces will tell you that we had fun creating these. Lots of giggly fun. My kids helped mix (over-mix!) the batter and I worked the griddle. We watched a cool video by Jim’s Pancakes that helped us decide to get adventurous with our pancake batter. Silly Halloween pumpkin faces got voted in. Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate got a unanimous thumbs up for delicious holiday flavor.
As you guys know I love the Fall & Winter months the best. Cool crisp air, spiced flavors, warm fleece & sweaters and the thought that ski season is around the corner thrills me to know end. I recently posted a recipe for homemade Pumpkin Chocolate Oat Muffins. My kids loved them and looked forward to finding them tucked into their lunch boxes each day.
One thing you might notice (all you pancake connoisseurs out there) is that these are not a fluffy stack. That is what happens when you let your kids over mix the batter. Simply ignore the lack of fluff-the pumpkin & chocolate flavor will swoon you. Mix your batter for less time & you might end up with fluff.
I always use the best chocolate & cocoa powders I can find. Adding pumpkin and whole grain flours (whole wheat and oat flours) keep these pancakes filled with nutrition as well.
Not only does Pumpkin taste amazing in sweets and savories, it is loaded with all kinds of vitamins, minerals & is a powerhouse of nutrients. So go ahead get some pumpkin & make some pumpkin pancakes.
This breakfast would make anyone smile, adults or kids.
What are your favorite kind of pancakes?
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Chocolate Pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern Pancakes
makes 6-8 servings
NOTES
- If you don’t have Oat Flour you can pulverize rolled oats in a blender until you have flour.
- If you want to learn how to make fun pancake shapes like these please watch the videos over at Jim’s Pancakes
- As always, use your own taste buds to determine how you want to flavor your Chocolate Pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern Pancakes. My ingredient lists are wide open for interpretation.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Oat Flour(see not above)
1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 large Egg
1 1/2 cup Milk (any kind you like)
Vanilla Steviadrops to taste
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
pinch of Salt
1/4 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
8 ounces Pumpkin Purée
Water or extra Milk (for thinning out batter if needed)
Cooking spray or Butter for pan
METHOD
Prepare batter. Combine flours, egg, milk, stevia, baking powder and salt with a whisk. Divide the batter into two bowls. I separated 1/3 for chocolate & 2/3 pumpkin. In the smaller amount of batter whisk in cocoa powder. In the larger amount of batter whisk in pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree. Thin out batters if needed with milk or water. Add batter to plastic squeeze bottles. Squeeze a little onto a plate to make sure it comes out easily.
Spray or add butter to a medium fry pan or griddle set to medium high heat.Outline the pumpkin shape with desired color, make eyes, mouth and nose & stem with opposite color. Fill in the pancake with the outline color. Don’t cover the eyes, nose and mouth, just make sure the batter touches those areas.Reduce heat to medium so the pancakes don’t burn and continue to cook them until cooked through. I did not flip mine. They look blotchy if you do. Remove carefully from griddle with a flipper.
*Thin out batter periodically if you need to. If the nozzle clogs on your squeeze bottle simply flush with hot water or poke with a toothpick.
Pancake Recipe Links
- Gluten Free Coconut Corn Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce MarlaMeridith.com
- Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Peanut Butter Syrup Our Best Bite
- Big Batch PancakesDine and Dish
- Light and Fluffy Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe Girl
- Whole Wheat Pancakes with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote Two Peas and Their Pod
The cutest, most festive pancakes I have ever seen! Your kiddos are adorable too!
Those are the cutest pancakes ever!!
These are the cutest pancakes! I can’t wait to have kiddies to make fun foods like this with.
What a fun way to start the day!
Adorable (your kids and the pancakes)! What a great idea. 🙂
So cute (the pancakes and the kiddos)! Have they decided what they’re going to be for Halloween yet?
I love those pancakes! So cute.
Cheers,
Rosa
Your kids must have been thrilled with these, Marla! What a fun project to do together. My favorite pancakes? Anything with lots of ground ginger and cloves.
Those pancakes are adorable! I’m making them with my grandson when he visits this fall. Thanks!
These are the cutest pancakes ever! My niece would go crazy for them. And I love all the nutrition in there, especially the oats! 🙂
These are for sure going on my list of fall treats to make! I think even a 23 year old deserves some pumpkin shaped pancakes every once in a while, don’t you?
These are too cute! I don’t think I could get them as cute as you did though.
Who’s more adorable…those fun pancakes or your cute helpers?
I love that your kids get to participate in the kitchen the way they do ;o)
More children should get comfortable with this lab…maybe less kids would go out to buy junk food later on in their lives.
You’re such a fun and fabulous Mommy Marla…just the way my Mom thankfully was.
Ciao for now and flavourful wishes,
Claudia
Claudia: That is such a sweet comment that actually brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are actually helping to create great memories for our children. Hopefully we can teach them strong healthy values & skills while they are young. I do believe that kids bodies and minds thrive on healthy foods. They should learn from the beginning what real food tastes like, where ingredients come from and of course, how to cook. Glad to read that your mom was such a wonderful teacher & mommy. I can tell from your recipes that the passion started young.
Joanne: Of course a 23 year old gal deserves pumpkin pancakes, so do her friends. Heck, everyone does!
What a fun idea! I love the expressions on your children’s faces: so proud of what they’ve accomplished, as they well should be (and you too)!
LOVE the creativity and the sharing of links you do. You really are someone I need to meet sooner rather than later….now, I need to create a sweet potato pancake recipe
These are so incredibly adorable!
These pancakes are so cute! I have never put pumpkin and chocolate together, but I cant wait to try!
These are not only fun looking, they sound great tasting. That choco-pumpkin combo is one I’ve never thought of! Your helpers are fun looking too!
Marla these are just fantastic! I love them! 😀
How fun it would be to have my little ones make pancakes like these. It is sweet to see your kids make the pancakes themselves. It looks so fun and yummy. Great post!
These are so cute!
cutest pancakes I have ever seen…bet they tasted great! yum!
Oh my goodness…these are adorable! And those kiddies too! How sweet…and so festive. I’m so glad you stopped by my blog so I could find yours…it’s fabulous!
So cute, and i love pumpkin on pancakes. Thanks for reminding me!
These look like such fun & brings the ordinary old pancake to a whole new level Marla.
Cuter than any pancakes I’ve ever seen. The only thing is — how can it be nearly Halloween? It’s crazy how fast this year is going by.
Carolyn: I know, I hesitated at first to launch into Halloween, but then I saw the holiday flying around the web. Any excuse to talk up my favorite time of year! It is scaring me even more that many stores are all ready pitching x-mas. They need to let us enjoy the Fall 🙂
Although we don’t have Halloween in Greece I would love to have these pancakes on my breakfast table and so would my son.
How lovely and creative! Your kids were having so much fun with it.
These are so fun and she is an angel.
we just made pumpkin flavored pancakes this weekend – now i wonder if i can convince my husband to make me pumpkin shaped pancakes next weekend – so cute!
These look fabulous. My 11 year old saw this and said we are making these this week!
these are precious, i know my little one would just love them… im sure my husband might eat a dozen as well… too cute
These are so cute! I have been craving pumpkin pancakes the past few days. This is such a cute idea…I would have never thought to put two separate batters in squeeze bottles. Clever! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, I will be making these soon!
SO adorable!! And can I just say your daughter is freaking gorgeous. Good thing she’s not my age, or I’ll be terribly jealous. ;-p
My favorite pancakes is the Japanese hotcakes. Not sure why it’s different…it just is. And I love pumpkin ones, too!
These are the cutest pancakes I have ever seen and I would love to sit down and these for breakfast!
These are so cute!!
the pancakes are so cute and tasty but what really got me was the photo of the most adorable kids getting busy in the kitchen!
Wow, those look completely fabulous. You have one lucky (and very pretty) daughter!
*kisses* HH
Oh my goodness! These are so creative! I love them!
The pancakes looks absolutely delightful. I can’t wait to give this a try with my family!
oh wow these are so cute
Autumn is my favorite time of year for cooking and baking! These pancakes are so fun. My kids will love them!
Why, if those aren’t the loveliest pancakes ever?! You never, never cease to amaze!
How cute are these?!!! And a terrific start to your day!
Great job on the shapes! I can really appreciate the work that goes into that. Two colors really raises the bar and pumpkin flavor, wow. Gotta try that. Brent does some pretty good shapes too, a lot of horses and pet shapes over here. I however cheat on the shapes and bought the Williams Sonoma Halloween pancake shapes . They are like cookie cutters. You need a flat surface for them, not a rounded pan, but they stack up very thick. It is very hard to make thick pancakes otherwise with our diet restrictions.
Can’t wait to try them!
xo, Andrea
Andrea: I need a griddle so badly. I always work within the confines of my sauté pans with rounded sides. For you guys, you could do the same with gluten free pancake mix-just add the cocoa powder and pumpkin to the batter. I bet Brent makes some rad pancakes!
Brooke: Thanks for your sweet compliments-coming from you that means a lot. I love to amaze as do you!
How absolutely adorable. Your daughter is so precious.
🙂
Valerie
You made an incredibly picture heavy post, but decided not to include any from the actual process? Why? To show off your fantastic pictures? They’re really not that fantastic. I don’t think I ever saw a recipe post with so many useless pictures. Sorry if that offends, but if you are even remotely interested in improving yourself (and I’m assuming here that you (at least in part) write these posts to share great recipes and ideas with other people), I thought you might like to know that this kinda blew chunks. You could have at least been a little more clear than that single seventh step. Try, try again.
BTW, I don’t care if you don’t post that comment. If you’re too insecure to post what people really think, that’s fine. But would you at least heed my advice?
Thanks for the advice my passionate reader. Noted.
I loved ALL of your pictures. My kids enjoy helping in the kitchen. We’re definitely going to try making these pancakes. Thanks for sharing!
Marlon: Thanks for your sweet comment. Your kids will have so much fun making these pancakes with you.
Everyone: As far as technique goes I invite you to go to Jim’s Pancakes website. He has great videos as to how to master this technique. No use in me re-doing his perfect instructions.
xo
pancakes, chocolate, and shaped foods–these are three things i love. clever work, marla!
These are adorable, and if they’re flavored with pumpkin, chocolate, and drizzled with maple syrup…yum!
My boys would go crazy over those pancakes. As for me, I love anything made with pureed pumpkin (so versatile and nutritious)!