In case you need five reasons to make squash pancakes...

Here they are:

1. Squash is awesome.
2. You have cooked, pureed squash in the fridge.
3. I told you to.
4. It gives you a reason to call your mom.
5. Squash is awesome.

I love pancakes.
I love squash pancakes. It's a no-brainer.

Once upon a time, when I was younger and dating First Boyfriend, I went to the standard 'meet the parents' night. First Boyfriend's mom made squash pancakes for dinner. (She made other things too, but I don't remember the rest of the meal. I am fairly confident that was not the same night that she made some sort of concoction with imitation crab.)

If I hadn't really really liked First Boyfriend (at the time) I would have had no qualms about grabbing the entire plate of pancakes, fighting off the rest of the family with my elbows and scarfing down the delicious without sharing.

I didn't. I was a good girl.

I've had dreams about those pancakes. I may have spent considerable time weighing the awkwardness of calling up First Boyfriend's mom and asking for the recipe. I may have considered calling First Boyfriend in the hopes that he had the recipe.

After all these years of being without, I've decided to try my hand. And so must you. For the reasons listed above and because it involves maple syrup. I found a few recipes online and adapted them to become:

Super Awesome Squash Pancakes a la Thelma
Yield: 12 small pancakes

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup squash puree
1/4 cup maple syrup
2-3 tablespoons 1% milk

Let's get started, shall we? For the purpose of this exercise, let's say you haven't pureed your cooked squash yet. Let's do that now. Cuisinart is your friend.

Crazy sharp blade.  Be muchos careful.

Once your squash is pureed, combine your dry ingredients.

Have we talked about pumpkin pie spice before?  

We should.

It's divine.

Get some.

 

 The recipe doesn't call for it, but I decided to sprinkle in some nutmeg.

Mix up those dry ingredients and set aside.

Time for the wet ingredients.  We'll start with an egg.

And a fork, evidently.  The fork never really gets credit.

Lightly beat that egg, and then add in the squash puree.

Next up: maple syrup.

Do you see how there's just a bit left in the measuring cup?

Scoop it out with your finger.

Now, see how there's a bit left on your finger?

Put that in your mouth.  Go ahead.  You'll thank me.

 

 Next, add in the milk, and stir all the wet ingredients until well combined.

Toss in the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

 Now we want to let the batter rest for twenty or thirty minutes.

Check Facebook. Go tweeze your eyebrows.

Better yet, call your mom.  You don't call her enough.  Tell her about pumpkin spice.

Since it was my first attempt at making these I chose to melt butter instead of using cooking spray.

See?

In retrospect, don't use butter.  Use Pam.  Pam is your friend.

See? Way too much butter.

You want to scoop about a tablespoon (or soup spoon) of batter onto the hot skillet, then flatten with the back of the spoon.  Don't make them too thick.  They're hard to flip and tend to get a bit messy, so the thinner and smaller the better.

Keep the temperature on the element low.

These little pancakes are slow cookers... you'll have to be patient. Don't turn up the heat to make it go faster.  Let them bubble and stiffen the way normal pancakes would, and then ease a flipper under then.  They won't be pretty once they're flipped, but they'll be delicious.  

I promise.

Beautiful!  Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon, and enjoy.  

These are best nice and hot, so keep them warm in the oven if you can, and eat right away.

Better yet, snack on one while they're cooking. 

Or two.  No judgment here.

Enjoy!