I don’t make pancakes from scratch very often. In fact, most of the time I make pancakes at home I use the ‘just add water’ boxed mixes – which is probably sacrilege for a food blogger to even admit. They are just so darn easy. Then again, the first time I made these gingerbread pancakes that I found on Averie Cooks and every time since it reminds me how easy scratch-made pancakes can really be.
These gingerbread pancakes taste like Christmas, come with their own super easy maple-molasses syrup, and are definitely worth making from scratch.
So after all this talk about how easy these are to make to from scratch, will I give up the box mix? Probably not for plain pancakes, but I will probably venture out more in the flavored pancake variety and try more things like pumpkin or lemon ricotta from scratch. Who knows, maybe I will even develop my own ‘boxed’ mix like my cookie kits. I’ll think about that when my kitchen is up and running again. After all, my new stove will have a griddle that I’ll need some excuse to test out!
Here’s what you need:
We don’t often have milk or buttermilk on hand at my house. Neither of us drink milk anymore and only use it in cooking or baking. I’ve found that dry milk or buttermilk powder works really well in baking applications. In fact, keeping this buttermilk powder on hand is what let me make these pancakes completely from ingredients I always have on hand when the mood struck – I didn’t plan this at all when I made the pancakes for this post, I literally just had a craving for fancy pancakes.
We’re going to start with the dry ingredients which are: flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, a pinch of salt and butter milk powder. Note: if you have ‘real’ buttermilk skip the powder and I’ll tell you when to add it when we get to the wet ingredients.
Prep the wet ingredients which are: an egg, molasses, canola oil, and vanilla. If you used buttermilk powder add in water, but if you’re using real buttermilk add that now. Whisk together until frothy.
Next add the dry ingredients. I actually ditched the whisk you see in the left picture and folded the dry and the wet together with a spoon, just until combined. You’ll notice there are still chunks of flour mixture and it’s not smooth. This keeps the pancakes tender, if you beat them until they are smooth the pancakes will be tough.
Preheat a griddle pan to 350 degrees. Pour the pancake batter onto the griddle about a quarter cup at a time. This will give you 4 to 5 inch pancakes.
Once you see little bubbles form on the edges of the pancakes, after about 1-2 minutes, flip them over. The pancakes cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side. The pancakes will look a little dark because of the molasses and spices, but if you think they are getting a little too dark, turn the griddle down for the next batch.
This recipe will make 12 – 4 to 5 inch pancakes, or about 3 servings. Because I can do this in 2 batches on the griddle, I don’t need to keep them warm. If you are cooking a larger batch you can transfer the pancakes to an oven safe platter or cookie sheet and keep in a warm oven.
The syrup is very simple, you can make it right in the microwave. Combine a quarter cup of real maple syrup, about 1 T molasses, and ¾ t of ground ginger. Of course you can go up or down on any of the flavors to your own taste. Microwave for 30 seconds until warm.
Now comes the best part. Plate a nice big stack of pancakes. I like to add a pat of butter on top.
Ready for the syrup?
Pour over a generous amount of syrup.
And it’s time to enjoy!
- 1 c flour
- 2 T brown sugar
- 2 T sugar
- 2 t cinnamon
- 1 t ginger
- 1 t all-spice
- 1 t fresh ground nutmeg
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- ½ t cloves
- Pinch salt
- 3 T buttermilk powder (skip if using real buttermilk)
- 1 egg
- 3 T molasses
- 1 T canola oil
- 1 t vanilla
- ¾ c water (or buttermilk is not using buttermilk powder)
- Syrup:
- ½ c pure maple syrup
- 1 T molasses
- ¾ t ground ginger
- Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees.
- Whisk together flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, salt, and buttermilk powder (if using).
- In a separate bowl combine egg, molasses, canola oil, vanilla and water or milk. Whisk until frothy.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients, folding together until a lumpy batter forms. Do not stir until smooth.
- Lightly grease the griddle with cooking spray or by rubbing with a paper towel lightly coated with canola oil. Drop a ¼ c at a time onto the griddle. Flip after 1-2 minutes once bubbles have formed on top of the pancakes. Cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side until golden.
- Combine maple syrup, molasses and ginger in a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 30 seconds until warm.
- Serve pancakes with maple-molasses syrup.
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