I have been LOVING this breakfast lately. I look forward to it every morning.

I know it’s not exactly pumpkin spice season, but who cares ’bout dat. Never a bad time for a little pumpkin spice.

These pancakes are hearty, satisfying, gluten free, dairy free (well, dairy optional for the toppings), and sugar free.

And very low in natural sugars too, making them an incredibly healthy breakfast; great for clear, acne free skin!

However, if you’re a total sugar hound, you may not find these quite as amazing as I am right now.

Just throw out the idea that pancakes have to be obnoxiously sweet and you’ll be ok.

No? Well.. promise me you’ll try them at least twice with no sugar. And if you really can’t handle it, put a tiny bit of real maple syrup on top.

But anyway…

I’ve been making a huge batch of batter (as per the recipe), keeping the leftovers in the fridge, and then cooking up a new pancake every day for breaky.

I haven’t been paying attention to exactly how many breakfasts you get out of this, but I’d say it’s about eight.

Let Us Begin the Cooo-king Lesson…

So here’s what you’re gonna need:

For the Batter:

Makes somewhere between 5 and 8 big ass pancakes

• 5 large eggs
• 1 large tin of pure pumpkin puree (or two small cans)
• 2.5 cups unsweetened coconut milk (or almond, rice, or hemp)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups buckwheat flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see instructions below for making your own)
• 1 tablespoon gluten free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil for cooking

For the Toppings:

All of the toppings can be substituted, added to, or omitted to your liking, but this is how I do it:

• 1 granny smith apple, chopped
• 1 handful raw walnuts (or almonds, or nut of choice), chopped
• Unsweetened goat’s milk kefir (or for dairy free: unsweetened coconut yogurt, coconut milk, or almond milk)
• Sprinkling of more pumpkin pie spice
• Organic butter (or ghee, or more coconut oil for dairy free, or just omit)

To Make Your Own Pumpkin Pie Spice:

Pumpkin pie spice can be bought pre-mixed, or just mix a bunch of spices together to make your own blend. This makes a fair bit so you’ll have it on hand after:

• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Here’s What You Do:

First step is mixing together all your wet ingredients in a very large bowl.

First beat the eggs:

Then add the pumpkin, the vanilla, and the coconut milk and give it all a big stir until it looks like the photo on the right:

Then you want to mix your dry ingredients together in a different bowl (a measuring cup is fine). Your baking powder, sea salt, pumpkin pie spice, and buckwheat flour:

Next, add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add about a third to begin, stir it in, then the next third, stir, and finally the last third, and give it a really good mixing.

The batter will be a little thick, like so that when you pick some up with your spoon, most of it falls off, but some of it doesn’t. And that’s ok. Add more coconut milk if you think it’s way too thick though.

Next, turn the oven on to 350 degrees, and also place a large, oven-safe, non-stick frying pan on the stove on medium high heat.

Melt some coconut oil in it until it’s nice and hot, and you know the batter is gonna sizzle when it hits…

When it’s ready, spoon your pancake batter into the middle of the pan.

I don’t exactly know how much I use… 2 large rounded scoops in a large serving spoon and then just a little bit more… it’s probably about a cup altogether. This will all depend on how much you eat too… I eat a fair bit…

Anyway, when you’ve spooned it into the middle, use the back of the spoon to spread it out around the frying pan as much as you can. It’s ok if it’s not that pretty or even.

Give it about a minute (or as long as it takes to put your spoon in the sink and the batter back in the fr) and then pop the whole thing into the oven.

The reason I do it this way is because I found that frying it just takes too long and doesn’t bake the middle of the pancake very well. Baking it works a lot better, and cooks it more evenly.

Come to think of it, this recipe would probably also make a pretty neat muffin.

Anyway…

Bake on 350 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes. If you’re heading out for the day, use this time to get dressed, do your makeup, or whatever else you need to do.

Then take the pan out, flip the pancake, put it back in the oven and bake for another five minutes or so.

To be honest, I usually don’t even time it.. so if you go over a little on the time, don’t worry about it… it’s very forgiving…

Use this last five minutes after you’ve flipped it to chop up your apple and walnuts for the topping.

When it’s done, take it out, and spread some organic, preferably grass fed butter on it if you so desire.

Then throw your apples and walnuts on there…

Next, drizzle a fair bit of goat’s milk kefir all over it for a huge hit of probiotic benefit. Or if you’re doing coconut yogurt, you may want to put it on before the apples.

And finally, a sprinkling of more pumpkin pie spice, and enjoy!! 🙂