Pumpkin Cranberry Orange Pancakes with Caramelized Pecans, Cheesy Eggs and Bacon

Yes another pumpkin thing. You'll live. It's fall. I like pumpkin. So there.

I had some leftover pumpkin and cranberry sauce from the pumpkin cinnamon rolls and cranberry pancakes made about a week ago and they needed to get used.

I decided that pancakes would be a good idea. I was tired of my fried egg on toast that is the usual morning breakfast. Along with coffee. Must have coffee.

And its Saturday, which means for some odd reason I need to make a real breakfast. Something from the kids about since I'm home and they are home and we have no place to go, I should make a real breakfast...vs cereal or toast. Whatever.



What you will need:

• Pumpkin
• Cranberry sauce
• Flour
• Eggs
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Sugar
• Vanilla
• Orange extract or frozen orange concentrate (if you use concentrate, eliminate the sugar)
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Pumpkin Pie spice
• Eggs (1-2 per person), salt and pepper, milk (1tbs per egg more or less)
• Bacon

So this is super simple. These are fat fluffy pancakes so therefore are filling. 

Get your bacon started now, get eggs mixed up with a pinch of salt and pepper and little milk. Use paper towels (or we have a cloth towel dedicated for draining grease to be more environ friendly) to sop up grease as bacon gets done. You can also cook the bacon in the over on a baking sheet with edges. This makes them all done at once.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together with a fork, flour, soda, powder, sugar, spice and salt. Add vanilla and orange extracts, 2 eggs, 1c pumpkin, 1/4c cranberry sauce, 2tbs vinegar (to make baking soda all fizzy and happy. This is why they are sooooo fluffy!) Mix together with dry ingredients.

Warm up 2 skillets, one large for your pancakes, unless you have one of those electric griddle thingy's, then use it. The other skillet is smaller, for pecans. MMMMM pecans. If you made bacon, you can use some of the grease to coat your pan for pancakes and for eggs. Just makes for added yumminess.

In the smaller skillet melt 1Tbs butter, 1/4c crumbled/chopped/not whole pecans. When butter is melty, coat pecans and add 1Tbs of brown sugar. 

Coat your big skillet/griddle with butter (hold a stick by the wrapper and with open end, rub all over pan. Hands stay clean, no excess of butter.)

Cook until edges look dryish. Sorry, no bubbles on these. Flip and cook on other side for a few seconds.

Keep pancakes warm in oven at 250 on an oven safe dish. 

Turn off the pecans, and let them cool.

Finish off bacon/sausage (if you didn't use oven method) and use same pan for eggs (minus a lot of the grease). To get rid of the grease, I keep a tin can or jar with lid next to stove. Sometimes I am lazy and run it down the garbage disposal (gasp) with hot water. You can keep bacon warm with pancakes in oven, as the get cold fast.

When pancakes are ready sprinkle with pecans and drizzle with syrup. Make the kids set the table and enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cranberry Orange Pancakes____________________________________

1c flour

2t baking soda

1T baking powder

2t pumpkin pie spice

1t salt

2T vinegar

1t vanilla

1t orange extract or 2tsp orange juice concentrate

2 eggs

1c pumpkin

1/4c cranberry sauce (canned)

Pecans:

1/2c pecans

1T brown sugar

1T butter

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix gently with a fork. Heat pan of griddle to medium-high heat. Drop pancake batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto greased pan. Cook until edges start to look dry and pancake puffs. Flip and cook for a 1-2 minutes on opposite side.

Pecans: Heat butter in small skillet over medium heat until melted. Add chopped pecans and brown sugar. Heat until glazed evenly. 

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Yay fall! The colors and the cool(er) weather and pumpkins and apples and soups and, and, and... Sigh.

Can you tell I like fall?

So on this crisp fallish afternoon, with a blue sky and sunshine...I am inside working on the website (grrrr). To make it a somewhat enjoyable day, I decided we needed something from pumpkin. This way I could have the house smelling like thanksgiving while slaving away over the keyboard and mouse.

PUMPKIN COOKIES! YES!

Easy, have all the ingredients (yes we keep canned pumpkin in the pantry, you know, just in case), and I get to experiment. *evil laugh*

Here is what you need...

• 2 sticks butter
• sugar
• pumpkin
• flour
• baking soda
• baking powder
• package of pudding mix (pumpkin pie works best, but butterscotch or vanilla are good too)
• pumpkin pie spice
• orange
• vanilla
• eggs
• salt

If you want to glaze the cookies then you need some powdered sugar too.

Soften the butter by either planning ahead (like that ever happens when you make cookies!) or nuke in microwave for 10-20 seconds.

Dump butter and sugar into bowl or mixer. Mix until creamy. While mixing, put 4 c flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 t pumpkin pie spice, and 1 tsp salt into another bowl and mix with fork.Add 2 c pumpkin and pudding mix. When blended add eggs one at a time, mixing after each.

Zest 1 large orange. I use the cheese graters small grate part to do this. If you have a zester, more power to you. Keep orange as we will use juice for the glaze later.

Mix zest and vanilla into the batter. Add flour mix slowly, mixing well after each cup.

Take your butter wrappers and grease the baking sheet or line with waxed paper. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.

Throw pans into the oven for 10 minutes. Exactly 10 minutes. Less and they are gooey, more and they are brown on the bottom and dry. DO not worry. They are supposed to be fluffish. I tried using 2 teaspoons each of powder and soda and got more of a bread-like cookie. They were yummy, just not what I was expecting.

 So, hint, hint.., to make bread or muffins, just increase the baking soda and powder to 2 teaspoons each and reduce by 1/2c of flour.

Let the cookies set on their pan for a few minutes before moving to cooling rack and wait until they are cool before adding glaze.

Oh yeah! The glaze! Mix 1 part squeezed OJ to 4 parts powdered sugar. You should get a thick liquid...drizzle over tops of cookies when cool. If you are feeling decorative, you could even zest part of another orange and put orange zesty sprinkles OR if you have a citrus peeler make little curls to put on top!

This recipe should make about 3 dozen cookies. I didn't end up with that many by the time they were done.

Damn gnomes.

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Pumpkin Cookies________________________________________________

Cookies

2 sticks of butter, softened

1c sugar

2c pumpkin

4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp baking soda

2 t pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 pkg butterscotch, vanilla or pumpkin pie pudding

2 eggs

1 lg orange, zested

1 tsp vanilla

Glaze

1/2c powdered sugar

1-2Tbs orange juice

Pumpkin Pie Spice 

4 Tbs cinnamon

4 t nutmeg

4 t ginger

3 t allspice

Mix together and store for pumpkin time.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix dry ingredients into separate bowl. Add pumpkin, vanilla and zest to butter mix. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add dry mix slowly allowing to mix well between each add. 

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 mins.

Mix glaze ingredients and when cookies are cool, glaze tops.