A Taste of Fall: Musselman’s Apple Butter Pancakes

I’m not sure what it is about the first week of September, but it makes me crave all things fall.  It’s like suddenly I want all our humidity to disappear, cooler temperatures to set in, and for apple and pumpkin products to line the shelves of every store.  Unfortunately, South Florida rarely cooperates, so it’s up to me to kick off fall in my house.  And what better way to do that than with some great fall inspired recipes?  Quite frankly, I can’t think of a better way.  So when I saw a jar of Musselman’s Apple Butter on the shelf at the grocery store a few days ago, I was determined to do something creative with it…something distinctly fall.  What resulted were these amazingly delicious Apple Butter Pancakes that you need to try.

For this recipe, you will need:

1/3 cup of Musselman’s Apple Butter

3/4 cup of pancake mix (any kind)

1/3 cup of milk

1 egg

1 Tbspn of apple pie spice

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

non-stick cooking spray

Step 1 – Combine all ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl and stir until smooth.

Step 2 – Turn on stove burner to medium heat (or just below medium heat).  Place skillet or griddle on burner and allow to heat.  I include this as a step, because I’ve found that pre-heating the skillet is key to great pancakes.  Once heated, spray with cooking spray.  These pancakes really like to stick to the griddle, so make sure to spray with cooking spray each time you put a new batch on your griddle.  And yes, that rule applies even if you’re using a non-stick griddle because that’s what I was using and I still needed the cooking spray.

Step 3 – Pour batter on to pre-heated griddle pan.  Wait until you see the edges starting to bubble up, and then flip.

Step 4 –  Cook thoroughly on the other side and remove from griddle.  Serve hot with fresh fruit.

Simple right?  The whole recipe took approximately 20-25 minutes, a majority of which was making sure that I got the griddle heated properly.  The thing about these pancakes is that they don’t need a ton of heat…so if you’re like me and like to turn the burners up to get the pancakes made quickly (probably due to hungry little ones clamoring for breakfast), this recipe is going to require a little bit more patience.  But it’s totally worth it.  Each bit is full of mouth-watering fall flavor that will leave you wondering when you can work them into your menu again.  And trust me, these will be made again in our house very, very soon.  Maybe every weekend?

It made 8-10 small to medium sized pancakes, which were the perfect size for me and the girls.  And although they don’t need anything extra, you can absolutely top them off with a little bit of syrup for some added fall flavor!

Enjoy!