Spiced Applesauce Pancakes

Pancakes, applesauce, apples, spice, breakfast, brunch, caramel, fall, cinnamon

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
about 2 cups low fat buttermilk

Optional toppings:

Chopped apples
Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

Instructions

Preheat griddle to medium. I heat mine to 340 degrees F. If using a frying pan, you can wait until your batter is mixed up before preheating.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl.
In a four cup liquid measuring cup, whisk together sugar, applesauce, eggs and olive oil until well blended. Add enough buttermilk to bring the entire mixture to 4 cups. Whisk to combine.
Pour buttermilk mixture into flour mixture and whisk to combine. Do not over mix at this stage or you'll risk tough pancakes. Lumps are okay. Just mix until the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
Allow batter to rest for 10 minutes.
Drop batter by 1/4 cup scoopfuls onto preheated griddle or preheated pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for about 2 minutes per side, or until sides are set and you're beginning to see bubbles and the bottom is golden. Flip and finish cooking the other side. Serve with fresh chopped apples and caramel sauce, if desired.

Recipe Notes

*You can substitute 1 3/4 teaspoons apple pie spice or cinnamon for the individual spices.

*Since we're sticking with the 4 cup measure of wet ingredients, you can play around a little with how much apple sauce you use. I've used as much as 1 1/2 cups and still had good results. Just make sure you reduce the buttermilk accordingly.

*Leftovers freeze beautifully. Allow the pancakes to cool completely. Then, I stack them up separating them with waxed paper and put them in a zip top freezer bag. You can thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat in the microwave. Or, just reheat them from frozen, which is what I generally do.