gingerbread pancakes!


I've long described breakfast as one of my favorite meals. I think it might be because it comes with endless cups of coffee and limited judgement for wearing your pajamas while you eat.

If your definition of "getting dressed"is putting on pants... then I'll be honest ... I haven't really gotten dressed in over a week. By the time this vacation is over, I might actually forget how to use a zipper. In addition, my consumption of Pellegrino and Reese's Christmas Trees has increased dramatically. I had to actually grab the emergency bag of candy from my freezer on Saturday night. Sad or awesome? I'll go with awesome.

On Saturday, I woke up to knowing that while I had plenty of English muffins in the house... it wasn't enough. An impending snowstorm makes me want to hibernate early and often. A year ago, I made these corn griddle cakes to some success ... and for once in my life, I didn't really want a breakfast sandwich. I wanted pancakes... and I wanted them to be gingerbread.


Gingerbread pancakes are really quite awesome. When people put things in their pancakes, I feel as though they often go too overboard. Too many chocolate chips. Too much fruit. Too healthy. I'm a pancake purist. Gingerbread pancakes provide this rather excellent balance of spice, Christmas, and breakfast wonder. Additionally, they are super easy to make... even from scratch. I was most definitely raised a Bisquick kid and I heartily abide by that. Bisquick is awesome - but pancakes are not hard at all. In fact, they are shockingly easy.

I actually made Gingerbread pancakes for the first time last year and followed something closer to this recipe. While that recipe was fine, I was drawn to another version by the same blogger (A Cozy Kitchen) that actually called for no milk or molasses. It seemed like an interesting challenge for pancakes. Oddly enough, this batch of carbs called for coffee! I most certainly have coffee made and available nearly every morning of the week. I am crushing a lot of beans from Polcari's these days - it's pretty great.

A few suggestions? Make these pancakes. Wear your pajamas. Eat them in front of your Christmas tree.

Here's how it goes.

(Step 1) Whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl. The best part of brown sugar is that you get to pretend you are making sand castles.
(Step 2) Whisk together water, coffee, eggs, butter, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Be sure that your butter and coffee are at room temperature... no need to make scrambled eggs. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

(Step 3) Brush a griddle or skillet with butter, heat over moderate heat until hot but not smoking.
(Step 4) Working in small batches, pour 1/4 cup batter per pancakes onto hot griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until cooked through and edges are lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes more. And you're done.

Shopping List
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brewed coffee, room temperature or cold
2 large eggs
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of butter, melted and cooled
1/8 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

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