Gluten Free: Pumpkin Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Gluten Free Pumpkin-Cottage Cheese Pancakes, Photo by Kate Chan

I spend my days reading books, digging little hands into lavender-orange oil scented brown rice in a big bucket, coloring, finger painting, singing, and finding joy in everyday objects and things.  I am saddened that when I wrote out the October calendar on our family calendar that my “return to work” day no longer looms in the future – but is now clearly marked on the calendar.  Rather than rue the fact that I have to  return to my role of working mom, I will consider myself lucky.  I have, after all, had the pleasure of TWO maternity leaves in a mere 15 months.  In addition, not everyone is lucky enough to have the same breaks with their kids as I will.  So rather than worry about the incredible amount of hours I will have to put in shortly (I’m teaching a new course…that has NO curriculum and NO text (EEEEK!) this year),  I will just seize on the remaining memory-making moments to keep them alive.

Lately, Zoe’s latest obsessions have included the “If You Give A..” book series by Laura Numeroff.  These books tell a simple, circular story.  (And they feel quite repetitive – as they are, purposefully.)  Most of them include an animal and some type of food.  Her first beloved book from this series was “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie“.  And then came “If You Give a Moose a Muffin“.  But now?  Now she is into reading “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” and “If You Take a Mouse to the Movies“.  I’m sure you are wondering why I am telling you all this.  Here’s the reality:  if you read it or see it, the Chicklet wants to reenact it.  It is humorous to react our adventures – like we are trying to reenact her riding the merry-go-round in our living room or Super Grover swimming in a pool in the hallway, etc.

Amazingly, the Chicklet has never taken a shining to bread goods (not such a bad deal considering her Celiac momma!).  She doesn’t really care for bread, muffins, pancakes, etc.  She will take a couple nibbles of cookie or cake.  Don’t worry: she does have a sweet tooth!  Ice cream is definitely her thing.   It’s fabulous when I offer her a “treat” she will opt for a steamed soy milk with some vanilla flavoring. (Tastes just like marshmallow, if you ask me.)  But now she wants to bake all of these goodies.  For breakfast, instead of making puffy pancakes, I made these richer, denser pumpkin-cottage cheese pancakes for her to her absolute delight.  (She likes the mung bean pancakes we make, but not the fluffy traditional pancake that most of us know.)

She stood next to me on a chair while we whipped together all the goodies to make the batter.  She stirred her own little bowl of flours and water.  She helped flipped the pancakes.  but better yet:  she even did the dishes with me!

She chowed down the pancakes with glee and raced to do the dishes.  In fact, she asked for these same pancakes the following morning as well.  I think we’ve found a winner of a recipe – and I have a delightful dishwasher to boot!

Maybe you have a friendly dishwasher or pancake lover that wishes for a little Fall-inspired morning goodness?  The sweet pumpkin here really enhances the pancake batter even though there isn’t a ton of it.  And the cinnamon could be enhanced even more with ground ginger to add a little zing (like we did the morning after these photos were taken).     I hope you get a moment to enjoy these pancakes too.  There are definitely a staple for us now.

Gluten Free Pumpkin-Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Recipe based on the plain cottage cheese pancakes we make.
Recipe makes 10-12 small pancakes.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup pumpkin, pureed
1/3 cup gluten free flour mix
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
2 teaspoons agave nectar or honey or sugar
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients well.  (The Chicklet loves to use our mini-blender for this job.  LOL)
2. Heat a nonstick-pan over medium-high heat.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of batter (or less, if making small kid-friendly pancakes) into the pan (fit as many as your pan holds 3? 4?).
4. Cook each over medium-high heat until all of the bubbles have risen and the majority of them have popped – about 3-4 minutes.  Flip the pancakes and cook the other side an addition 3-4 minutes or until all of steam stops.
5. Serve with powdered sugar, maple syrup or your favorite pancake toppings.  (We loved adding sliced bananas to these and rolling them up.)

Happy Gluten Free Pancake munching!
~Kate

PS.  And Zoe would like to recommend that you have a little read-a-thon of “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” while munching.  Much like you would read the back of a cereal box while munching too.  I don’t know what we will cook next.  She is currently becoming fascinated with a book I used when teaching elementary school:  “The Z Was Zapped: A Play in Twenty-Six Acts” by Chris Van Allsburg.  Who knows what we will be making from that one!  I’m sure she will come up with something.