I am certain I’m not the only person around who changes recipes frequently. Somehow or other, when I decide to make something, I often end up thinking about it for some time … and then going off on a tangent and making something different.
This week’s recipe is an example. My friend Jennifer Rich told me she was planning to make spiced pumpkin pancakes for an event at the Charlemont-Hawley Senior Center.
The pancakes sounded like a great idea, and I asked her for the recipe. She complied, and I fully intended to make her pancakes. (They sound delicious and super pumpkin-y.) I may yet make them… but not this week.
To prepare, I started reading up on the history of pumpkin and the origins of pumpkin pancakes. Readers may know that pumpkin, like all squash, is native to the Americas. It has been grown and eaten here for at least 5,500 years.
Colonists to these shores adopted pumpkin as a versatile, filling food almost as soon as they arrived. In an essay called “Pumpkin: A Brief History,” the University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management website quotes a poem that someone on these shores wrote around 1630:
For pottage and puddings and custard and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies:
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins, we should be undone.
Donnie Dodson of “Eats History” and others note that something resembling pumpkin pancakes was traditionally prepared by Native Americans.
“Long before pumpkin spice was a seasonal craze, Indigenous peoples of North America were cultivating pumpkins and turning them into hearty cakes cooked over stones or in clay vessels,” writes Dodson.
“When Europeans arrived, they were fascinated by these preparations and began describing them in familiar terms like ‘pumpkin pancakes’ and hoecakes. These early griddle cakes became one of the first examples of culinary fusion in the New World, merging Indigenous tradition with European cooking methods.”
The original pumpkin pancakes were mashed pumpkin mixed with a grain like cornmeal or ground acorns and fried or grilled.
Before long, the colonists were adding precious spices to their pumpkin pancakes. Pumpkin Spice, a flavor combination that seems to get more prominent each fall, is not new, although some of its elements and proportions have changed over the years.
When I started thinking about pumpkin pancakes, I wanted to concoct my own fusion of ingredients. In honor of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, I wanted to include some cornmeal in my cakes; Native peoples didn’t have wheat flour until it was brought here by Europeans.
I decided to eschew spice in my pancakes. I love spice, but I wanted to create something closer to those early “hearty cakes.”
I wanted my hearty cakes to appeal to the contemporary eater, however, so I also included a little wheat flour to tone down the cornmeal, along with some of the other standard ingredients we put in our pancakes: milk (actually buttermilk for a little more flavor), a leavening agent (in my case, two of them!), and eggs.
I was all set to try making my pancakes when I hosted a dinner party, and a couple of the guests raved over the waffles they had enjoyed that morning. Inspired, I decided to turn my pumpkin pancakes into pumpkin waffles.
I decided I needed a little more fat to crisp up the outside of the waffles and a little less buttermilk to keep them from overwhelming my waffle iron.
I was ready to cook.
My batter was a lovely shade of orange and quite thick. Next time, I might add a little more pumpkin, but the waffles actually cooked up quite beautifully. The final product tasted like an extra-crunchy, extra-colorful version of cornbread.
I served it like a traditional waffle with butter and maple syrup. Honey might do very well, too. I can also imagine making it a savory side for supper, just like cornbread.
“Pumpkin” Cornmeal Waffles
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Instructions:
Melt the butter; then give it a few minutes to cool but not solidify.
In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle of them.
In a smaller bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the egg and the buttermilk. Whisk in the melted and cooled butter. Gently pour this mixture into the well in the dry ingredients, and mix. Stir in the pumpkin puree.
Lightly grease your waffle iron (I used butter for this to enhance the flavor and crunch) and preheat it. Gently spoon enough of the waffle batter into the waffle iron to fill it about 2/3 of the way, flattening it slightly with a spoon.
Cook the waffles until they are done according to the instructions for your waffle iron. (Mine stops smoking and lights up when the waffles are ready.) These may take a little longer than the average waffle because of the thickness of the batter.
Top the waffles with butter and maple syrup. Serves 4 to 6.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.