PotW: Post-Thanksgiving Pancakes (Pumpkin-Sage with Blackberry Sauce)

[last Pancake of the Week: Apple pie pancakes]

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner at my best friend's house in L.A., and it was a blast.  She told me that I had to feed seven people, and true to form, I made enough food to feed twenty.

Thanksgiving 2009

Grapefruit, poached pear, goat cheese, candied pecan mixed herb salad

Corn egg drop soup

Spicy shrimp-stuffed mushrooms

Rosemary roasted chicken

Mayonnaise lemon pepper salmon

Chicken beer gravy

Mashed potatoes

Cranberry-pomegranate sauce

Carrots vichy

Green beans with dried cranberries

Roasted potatoes with figs and thyme

Butternut squash and wild rice

Drunken pear frangipane tart

Apple pie

Pumpkin pie

Vanilla bean ice cream

Then, the next morning, my best friend requested pancakes (yes, even after all of that food).  She said she'd seen all the ones on the blog, and she MUST have some.  I wanted to do something light to compliment the previous night's Thanksgiving feast and yet still incorporate some of the lingering Thanksgiving flavors.  Hence, pumpkin-sage pancakes with blackberry sauce!

Yes, yes, I know.  This is already the third pumpkin pancake that I've made this year!  And, honestly, I was going to quit after two. (Pumpkin maple chocolate chip pancakes and Brown butter pumpkin pancakes)  However, it was insisted upon that I make pumpkin pancakes, and friend's requests is the mother of invention (hm... somehow I don't think the saying goes that way...).  Thank heavens though that I found a huge box of gorgeous blackberries at the market and had a bunch of fragrant fresh sage leftover from Thanksgiving dinner!

I tell you --these pancakes were the perfect post-Thanksgiving breakfast.  No heavy creams or overbearing chocolate.  Just light, airy berry syrup on dense and moist pumpkin pancakes with a hint of sage to carry over the fall flavors from the previous night's dinner.  Yum, yum.

Okay, I promise this will be the last of the pumpkin pancakes for this year!  Now that the holiday season is fully upon us and I am allowed to blast Christmas music out of my speakers, I must bid adieu to these autumn flavors and move onto winter and Christmas flavors!  Hm... peppermint pancakes?  We shall see...

Read on for recipe...


Pumpkin sage pancakes with blackberry sauce
makes about 18-20 silver dollar pancakes

for blackberry sauce:
Please note that the amounts in this recipe are approximate.

2-3 baskets blackberries
1/2 cup water, approx
1/3 cup white wine
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sugar, approx
pinch of salt
1 tspn cornstarch

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the blackberries until they begin to release their juices.
2. Add in water and white wine--just enough so that all of the berries are in liquid but are not covered by liquid.
3. Add in lemon zest, juice, sugar, and salt.  Bring to a simmer.
4. When the liquid begins to simmer, spoon about 1/3 cup into a small bowl.  Add tspn to the liquid in the bowl and whisk thoroughly until the cornstarch is dissolved.  Return the cornstarch mixture to the berries cooking in the saucepan.
5. Continue to simmer the berries until liquid is reduced by about a half and is syrupy.

for pumpkin-sage pancakes:

8 oz. milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree, fresh or canned (but make sure it's drained!)
2 eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
8 oz. flour
2 Tbspn sugar
2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
2 heaping Tbspn finely chopped fresh sage (the fresh sage is key here!)

1. Combine milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, and melted butter in a bowl and whisk thoroughly.
2. Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Butter lightly a medium hot skillet and cook the pancakes.
4. Top pancakes with blackberry sauce.

Enjoy!