It’s that time! Tomorrow morning will be the first weekend breakfast of fall (even if you are regretting having packed away your summer clothes two weeks ago) and it should absolutely be this Pumpkin Puff Pancake. (And maybe bacon.)
(So many parentheticals today. Oy.)
This Pumpkin Puff is simply an autumnal take on my very favorite breakfast. Or maybe I should say “another” autumnal take—I made a Caramel Apple Puff a couple of years ago. You can have that next weekend though. This weekend, it’s all about the pumpkin.
Mix up your pumpkin pie spice, crack open a can of Libby’s, put some of both in a blender with the usual suspects, and whirl up a smooth pancake batter.
Pour it in a screaming hot pan with plenty of butter and go find something to do for roughly 17 minutes. I recommend figuring out which Emmy-nominated show you can manage to binge watch in its entirety before the broadcast on Sunday night (When They See Us! Pose! Fosse/Verdon!). Or, alternatively, if you’re local, determining which panel you’re going to attend at the Brooklyn Book Festival (I’ll be at the 4pm “How We Eat at Home” panel to hear Anita Lo, Carla Lalli Music and Alison Roman).
(What is it with the parentheses today?)
Anyway…when you have decided to watch Sharp Objects and a few episodes of The Good Place…oops, sorry.
*ahem*
When your time has elapsed and your pancake is puffy and voluminous and golden, remove it from the oven. It will be big, buttery and beautiful at first, but will quickly settle into a crinkly, custardy pancake in the shape of its pan. Also, it’s going to smell magnificent, as almost all pumpkin spice-scented things do.
Top it with whatever makes you happy—I went for my usual maple syrup and confectioners sugar, along with some toasted pecans. Keeping it seasonal, you know, because it’s officially fall in my kitchen and on this blog.
Pumpkin Puff Pancake {Dutch Baby}
makes 4-6 servings
For the Puff Pancake:
1/4 cup pure pumpkin purée (I prefer Libby’s)
1 cup milk (preferably whole)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
For the pan:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
For serving:
confectioners sugar
pure maple syrup
toasted pecans
Place a large ovenproof cast iron or stainless steel pan in a cold oven. Preheat oven to 400F.
In the bowl of a food processor or high-powered blender, combine pumpkin purée, milk, eggs, vanilla, flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Process 30 seconds, or until no lumps remain. Let batter rest at least 5 minutes.
Once oven has reached 400F, remove the hot pan and add butter. Place pan back in the oven for 60-90 seconds, until butter has melted. Remove pan from the oven, and swirl the butter so it coats the pan. Pour in batter. Bake 17-18 minutes, until puffed and golden. Do NOT open the oven door during baking.
Remove pancake from oven—it will deflate quickly. Let cool 2-5 minutes before slicing and serving immediately with toppings of choice.
I love baking with 
A few weekends ago, armed with a half-container of sour cream leftover from making 
Instead I combined aspects of both recipes into The Best Waffles I Have Ever Eaten In My Life. We’re talking crispy edges and fluffy interiors, light and not too sweet, and gorgeous and golden. Truly, the best waffles I’ve ever eaten in my life.
I have 24 of them in my freezer leftover from testing and have been toasting and eating them plain as a midnight snack for the last few weeks, so I can confirm: these are the fluffiest and crispiest and The Best Waffles I Have Ever Eaten In My Life. Period.
Reasons the insides stay nice and soft:
Reasons the outsides get crispy:
I mean, look at that. Does breakfast get any better than that? I don’t think so.
Needless to say, half-containers of sour cream are a hot commodity around here now.
The end of summer always seems to be a time when I lose my recipe muse, albeit briefly. It’s disconcerting and annoying, but temporary, and understandable, I think.
Times like this are why I have my ever-growing list of blog inspiration. I wrote down “pineapple kolaches maybe?” after I made pineapple-centric 
And I am, thank goodness. I think we can all agree that the unofficial last week of summer deserves some quality baked goods.
Make no mistake: these Pineapple Kolaches are quality.
Kolaches are surprisingly simple to make—I think they’re less intensive than your average cinnamon rolls. The dough and filling are both made the night before baking. The next day, the kolaches are assembled, proofed, sprinkled with posypka (crumble) and baked until ever-so-slightly golden. It sounds like a lot, but the total “active” work time is probably 60-75 minutes and the payoff is 🍍🍍🍍🙌💗🎉‼️
There’s little that beats a soft, fresh from the oven, butter-brushed pastry with jammy pineapple filling.
I won’t be diving into any pools this holiday weekend, but I really want to dive into that well of filling. Don’t you?!
The last morning on 
But it’s also time for one last good breakfast. Since 
Initially, she may have regretted this. I had it in my head that my 
You can see where this is going—the first round was akin to cornmeal styrofoam. Turns out, waffle batter generally needs to be thinner than pancake batter, lest the final product be tough, dry and heavy. We ate the waffles anyway (bad waffles are still waffles), but it took two days and neither of us was particularly jazzed about it. Needless to say, I was a little disheartened, and spent a couple of days writing and rewriting the recipe until I was ready to try again on the final morning.
As I began mixing together dry ingredients and measuring out aquafaba and oil, I started to worry that round two would be disastrous too, but I ladled the batter into the iron anyway. VJ and I had an unspoken agreement that we would eat the results, no matter how awful.
But we were pleasantly surprised. My adjustments—reducing the cornmeal and doubling the aquafaba (chickpea canning liquid/egg substitute)—had worked, producing lighter, softer waffles with crisp edges and a good corn flavor. We finished them in one sitting. No arduous styrofoam-esque breakfasts here!
Long story short, in addition to my haul from the vintage stores, this vacation also resulted in my purchase of a waffle maker. I’ve been home for about six days now and have already gotten a good return on my investment: I’ve made this recipe 
Hello from 
I am only doing things that I want to do this week, which have thus far included thrifting, reading an actual book, re-seasoning our cottage’s abused cast iron, going to another island to see whale bones, and eating waffles twice because my friend/co-traveler/fellow Swan’s Island enthusiast, VJ, thought to bring her waffle iron and has been kind enough to let me mess with it.
I, however, am the Granola Queen. In an effort over the last few years to create a breakfast item that we could both enjoy, I’ve created three granola recipes in anticipation of our trips to Maine. They’re all vegan and gluten-free (aka 
I will not apologize for the cutesy name, or this granola for that matter. It’s my first new variation in 
Made with dried peaches, almond extract and pie spices in addition to the usual oats, nuts, maple syrup and olive oil, this is the stuff my summer breakfast dreams are made of.
That goes double when eaten in my own personal paradise. Peachy keen, indeed.
e2 bakes brooklyn 