Pear Walnut Pancakes

I adore fall… the colors, the smells… the food.  Pears are a special part of fall for me.. fresh, sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar, made into sauce, cakes… you name it!  I had some butter milk that I needed for a couple recipes, but needed to use the rest of it up.  Since  it was raining, had my nephews home from school, and a ton of canned pears left, I decided pancakes would be the perfect thing for breakfast.

Pear Walnut Pancakes – Cooking

You can use your own pancake recipe, or commercial mix, just add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.   I prefer to use a from scratch, gramma used to make pancake base.   The actual recipe is below. Follow along with the instructions too, if you are using your own batter, especially the draining of the fruit.

I do not like to add fruit and nuts to the actual batter, I find that the pancakes come out too soggy.  I prefer to add them to the top of each pancake as they are poured into the pan as shown in the image. You also get equal fruit and nuts per pancake this way. My nephew pays attention to “who got more”…. he’s 7, I guess that’s an age thing.

Regardless of if you are using your own home canned or store bought canned pears for this, use pears with a light syrup. Heavy syrup will make them overly sweet since we are using the juice in our batter combined with our butter milk. You will only need a drizzle of maple syrup on these.

These are meant to be crispy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. What ever you do, please do not smoosh the pancakes down when you flip them. This will knock out the air from the pancake, making them defluffy pancakes. You will also make a kazillion chefs cry. 🙂

Pear Walnut Pancakes – Plated

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Pear Walnut Pancakes

The best part of fall, pears turned into a pancake.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 12 pancakes

Author Bri K

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar You can use white if you like
• 2 and 1/2 cups of butter milk and pear juice from can you want only 2 and 1/2 cups total liquid
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons UNSALTED butter melted (you can use margarine if you prefer it)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla do to your taste
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon do to your taste
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg do to your taste
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 can of diced pears I can my own, but you can use store bought

Instructions

1. Drain a can of diced pears, reserving the liquid. I use a small wire sieve for this, and allow the pears to sit in it, mixing it around to make sure the juice is draining out of them well.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl.
3. Melt butter
4. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, add liquid and vanilla, whisk in melted butter.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour the liquid into the center.
6. Mix until almost smooth, you want some lumps to make them fluffy.
7. Over medium heat, heat some oil in a skillet. These are meant to be crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. You know your pan is hot enough when a couple dropletes of water dance across the oil and disappear.
8. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into pan, layer diced pears and walnuts on top. When bubbles have formed in the middle and the edges are dry (about 2 mins), flip the pancake over and continue cooking. DO NOT FLATTEN PANCAKE!! When you smoosh them down, you take the air out of them… No more fluffy pancake.
9. Keep warm on a low heat oven (275 degrees in an oven proof dish) while you cook the rest.
10. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
11. Freezing: Flash freeze on a cookie sheet, put into ziploc bags in a single layer,use parchment paper between layers. Label and date. Use with in 2 months.
12. To reheat: Preheat oven to 375 degrees, place frozen pancakes in a single layer on a cook sheet, bake for 8 mins or until hot.