This Dinner Will Get You Laid – Pumpkin Spice Pancakes with a Maple Apple Compote

So here’s the issue: the last thing anyone really wants after Thanksgiving is more dinner.

Leftovers? Sure, pass me the bread, and hand me that cranberry sauce, but not dinner. And then, inevitably, there comes a point where everybody reaches the end of their turkey tolerance. Maybe it’s today. Maybe it’s on Saturday. If not then, sure as Ninjas like sneaking, Sunday. But still. Dinner can feel like too much. Too much effort to make, and too much effort to eat.

And for moments like this, there are two solutions; order in some kind of spicy noodles, or eat breakfast for dinner.

Spice or simplicity. Either a hot red chicken curry, or a plate of buttery scrambled eggs on toast.

Or, for the sweet minded, there is literally nothing wrong with these warm spice-scented pillow-textured pancakes dipped into smoky apple maple compote. Nothing at all. There’s even wholewheat flour in there to make everyone feel healthier in some odd philosophical way.

As a celebratory breakfast to set you up for a day of intense sales shopping, they’re hard to beat. But as a cozy breakfast-for dinner curled up on the sofa watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, they really come into their own – the very essence of gentle romance.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes with Apple Maple Compote (makes 8 – 10 pancakes, which is 4 servings ish)

There are plenty of recipes in the world for pumpkin pancakes, many of them with maple apple compotes.

I base my compote on the method taught to me by my brunch-demon friend Doug, and the pancakes are based on Martha’s, though I like to use some whole wheat flour for the texture. For the record, I also love 101 cookbooks version of the dish, which uses buttermilk in the pancakes, and my favorite place to have someone else cook them for me has got to be 100 Acres in Soho.

If you’re a Brit and not able to get your hands on Pumpkin puree, I’d suggest making these buttermilk pancakes instead, switching out a couple of tbsp of white flour for whole wheat and adding the spices.

For the pancakes

¾ cup flour

• Whisk the egg, milk, pumpkin and melted butter in a jug
• Pour onto the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Mix to combine
• Heat a skillet or frying pan. Add a little butter and oil (to stop the butter burning) and fry the pancakes, keeping them warm on a baking sheet in a low oven as you go

For the compote

• Core peel and slice the apples (though if I use Fuji apples or coxes, I leave the skin on)
• Toss the sliced apples with the lemon juice and cinnamon, then fry in the butter for about two minutes per side until golden and slightly soft
• Pour the maple syrup over the apples – enough to cover, go by eye, depending on the size of the apples
• Pour the compote over the pancakes

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Add a handful of chopped toasted pecans to the pancake batter
• Or sultanas
• Or a chopped diced apple
• Switch out the pumpkin for apple sauce and use all wholewheat flour
• Use pears instead of apples in the compote
• Try this fresh peach compote
• Try making buttermilk pancakes