Soft, fluffy and gently spiced, these pumpkin pancakes are autumn on a plate, and the perfect lazy weekend breakfast when there’s a chill in the air.
Easy Pumpkin Pancakes with Caramelised Cinnamon Apples
These fluffy pumpkin pancakes are lightly spiced, made without eggs and topped with warm caramelised cinnamon apples, walnuts and a generous drizzle of maple syrup. They are an easy autumn breakfast or weekend brunch, and a delicious way to use up leftover pumpkin purée.
Pumpkin and apples are both at their best in the UK in autumn, so this recipe is seasonal cooking at its simplest: a stack of soft pumpkin spice pancakes, a pan of sticky caramelised apples, and a few store-cupboard ingredients.
How these pumpkin pancakes came about
After making my pumpkin-shaped bread, I had some homemade pumpkin purée left in the fridge and didn’t want it to go to waste. Pancakes felt like the obvious answer: the purée makes them soft and moist and, combined with the baking powder, it makes a great egg replacement, just like applesauce or bananas.
I topped that first batch with apples caramelised in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, plus a handful of walnuts and maple syrup. Then with a further batch, I decided to fold some chocolate chips into the batter, and that version turned into my spooky Halloween pancakes with a chocolate spider web. If you’re cooking for children around Halloween, try those. For the rest of the season, this pumpkin pancake recipe is the cosy, grown-up version I keep coming back to.
Why you’ll love these pumpkin pancakes
- Fluffy and moist: pumpkin purée keeps the pancakes soft and tender, and they stay that way when reheated.
- No eggs needed: the purée binds the batter, so they are naturally egg-free, and easily dairy-free and vegan too.
- Proper autumn flavour: warm mixed spice and cinnamon in the batter, with sticky caramelised apples on top.
- Seasonal and low-waste: a great way to use leftover pumpkin, whether it’s homemade purée or the flesh from a carved pumpkin.
- Freezer-friendly: make a big batch and reheat them in the toaster on busy mornings.
Ingredients for pumpkin pancakes
You’ll find the exact quantities in the recipe card below. Here’s what each ingredient does.
For the pancakes
- Plain flour: ordinary plain flour gives light pancakes. See the swaps below for wholemeal or gluten-free.
- Baking powder: pumpkin purée makes the batter heavy, and without using eggs it needs plenty of baking powder to rise. Check yours is in date, because old baking powder gives flat pancakes.
- Mixed spice and cinnamon: these give the pumpkin spice flavour. More on this below.
- Dark brown sugar: adds a gentle caramel note. Light brown or caster sugar also works.
- Milk of choice: I use oat or soya milk. Dairy milk is fine too.
- Vegetable oil: any neutral oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed, keeps the pancakes tender.
- Vanilla extract: rounds out the spices.
- Pumpkin purée: the star of the recipe. It adds moisture, colour and natural sweetness, and binds the batter in place of eggs.
For the caramelised cinnamon apples
- Apples: choose firm eating apples such as Braeburn, Pink Lady or Cox, which hold their shape. Bramleys will collapse into a purée, which is delicious but less pretty.
- Butter: regular or dairy-free butter both caramelise well.
- Dark brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla: together they make a glossy, toffee-like coating for the apples.
- Walnuts and maple syrup: walnuts add crunch, and maple syrup finishes everything off. Pecans are a good alternative.
Pumpkin purée: tinned or homemade?
Both work. Tinned pumpkin purée is sold in most large UK supermarkets in the autumn, often in the baking or world foods aisle. Make sure it says 100% pumpkin and not “pumpkin pie filling”, which is already sweetened and spiced.
To make your own, peel and cube a pumpkin or squash, steam or roast it until very soft, then blend until smooth. If the purée looks watery, leave it to drain in a sieve for 30 minutes, otherwise your pancakes may be gummy in the middle. I explain my steaming method in the pumpkin-shaped bread recipe. Butternut squash or sweet potato purée works just as well.
Mixed spice or pumpkin spice?
Pumpkin spice is the American blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. It’s not always easy to find in the UK, but our own mixed spice is very similar, so that’s what I use here. For classic pumpkin spice pancakes, replace the mixed spice with 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground nutmeg and a pinch each of ground cloves and allspice.
How to make pumpkin pancakes
Step 1: Make the caramelised apples first
Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the diced apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Stirring from time to time, cook the apples until they are tender and slightly caramelised, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Take off the heat. Cover and keep the apples warm while you make the pancakes.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar.
Step 3: Whisk the wet ingredients
In a separate bowl or jug, whisk the milk, oil, vanilla and pumpkin purée until smooth.
Step 4: Combine
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. The batter will be thicker than a classic pancake batter, and a few small lumps are fine.
Step 5: Cook the pancakes
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and grease it with butter. Add about 4 tablespoons of batter per pancake. Cook for 1–2 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface and the edges look set, then flip and cook for another minute until golden. Keep the cooked pancakes warm in a low oven while you cook the rest.
Step 6: Serve
Stack the pancakes, spoon over the warm caramelised apples, scatter with the walnuts and finish with plenty of maple syrup.
Tips for perfect pumpkin pancakes
- Don’t overmix: stir only until the flour disappears. Overmixing makes pancakes tough and flat.
- Keep the heat at medium-high: pumpkin and sugar brown quickly, so if the heat is too high the outside will colour before the middle is cooked.
- Spread the batter a little: the batter is thick, so nudge each pancake out with the back of a spoon so it cooks evenly.
- Wait for the bubbles: flip only when bubbles appear on the surface and the edges look dry.
- Make the apples first: they hold well over a low heat, so you can serve everything hot at once.
Variations and swaps
- Vegan: use plant milk and dairy-free butter for both the pancakes and the apples.
- Gluten-free: use a plain gluten-free flour blend and gluten-free baking powder.
- Nut-free: leave out the walnuts or swap them for toasted pumpkin seeds.
- Chocolate: fold 100 g dark chocolate chips into the batter. That’s how my Halloween pancakes were born.
- Wholemeal: swap up to half the plain flour for wholemeal for a heartier pancake.
- Squash: butternut squash or sweet potato purée works just as well as pumpkin.
Make ahead, storage and freezing
- Fridge: keep cooked pancakes in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The caramelised apples keep for 3 days too. Warm them through gently in a pan.
- Freezer: freeze the pancakes with baking paper between them for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: straight from frozen in the toaster, or covered with foil in a low oven for about 10 minutes.
Cooking with the seasons: pumpkins and apples
As a flexitarian cook, I try to plan my meals around what’s in season, and autumn makes that easy. In the UK, pumpkins are in season from late summer to December, and home-grown apples are at their best from autumn into winter, according to the British Dietetic Association’s seasonal fruit and veg guide. Seasonal produce is usually at its tastiest and best value, and choosing British apples over imported ones helps cut food miles.
Look out for different apple varieties at farmers’ markets and farm shops at this time of year. Many of them are perfect for cooking down with butter and spice.
What to do with leftover pumpkin
Every Halloween, millions of pumpkins are carved and then thrown away. Environmental charity Hubbub estimates that around 8 million pumpkins are wasted in the UK each year. Carving pumpkins are perfectly edible, even if they’re a little less sweet than squash. Here are a few ways to use them up:
- Steam or roast the flesh and blend it into purée for these pancakes. It freezes well in portions.
- Roast the seeds for a crunchy snack: see my roasted pumpkin seeds.
- Bake a loaf of pumpkin bread or a pumpkin-shaped bread.
- Stir chunks into a hearty pumpkin chilli.
- Browse all my pumpkin recipes for more ideas.
Pumpkin pancakes FAQs
Yes. This recipe doesn’t use any eggs. The pumpkin purée binds the batter and keeps the pancakes moist, and the baking powder makes them rise.
Pumpkin pancakes contain pumpkin purée. Pumpkin spice pancakes are flavoured with the pumpkin spice blend, and some don’t contain any pumpkin at all. This recipe is both: real pumpkin plus warm spices. Use mixed spice or the homemade pumpkin spice blend above.
The heat is probably too high, so the outside cooks before the middle. Watery purée can also cause it. Cook over a medium heat, spread the batter slightly, and drain homemade purée if it looks wet.
It’s best not to. Pie filling is already sweetened and spiced, so your pancakes will be too sweet and the texture will be different. Look for tins labelled 100% pumpkin.
Yes. Butternut squash purée (or sweet potato purée) works perfectly and has a slightly sweeter flavour.
Yes. Freeze them with baking paper between each one for up to 3 months, then reheat in the toaster or oven.
I hope you enjoy these pumpkin pancakes as much as we do. If you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram!
Pumpkin Pancakes
Equipment
Disclaimer: the equipment list above includes affiliate links to products I use and like.
Watch How To Make This Recipe
Ingredients
Caramelised cinnamon apples
- 2 Tbsp butter of choice
- 4 medium apples peeled, cored and diced
- 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon or more to taste
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Dry ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 2½ tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice, see notes
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp dark brown sugar
Wet ingredients
- 300 ml milk of choice
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 g pumpkin purée
To cook
- butter of choice for greasing the pan
To serve
- 50 g walnuts roughly chopped
- maple syrup to drizzle
Instructions
MAKE THE CARAMELISED CINNAMON APPLES:
- Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the diced apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract.2 Tbsp butter of choice, 4 medium apples, 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Stirring from time to time, cook the apples until they are tender and slightly caramelised, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Take off the heat. Cover and keep the apples warm while you make the pancakes.
MAKE THE BATTER:
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar.250 g plain flour, 2 Tbsp baking powder, 2½ tsp mixed spice, ¾ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp salt, 6 Tbsp dark brown sugar
- In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin purée until smooth.300 ml milk of choice, 3 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 240 g pumpkin purée
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix, a few small lumps are fine.
COOK THE PANCAKES:
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and grease it generously with butter.butter of choice
- Add 4 tablespoons (about ¼ cup) of batter to the pan for each pancake. Cook for 1–2 minutes, until bubbles form on the surface.
- Flip the pancake and cook for a further minute or so, until golden and cooked through.
- Repeat with the rest of the batter, adding more butter to the pan as needed. Keep cooked pancakes warm in a low oven.
TO SERVE:
- Stack the pancakes on plates, spoon over the warm caramelised apples, scatter with the walnuts and finish with a generous drizzle of maple syrup.maple syrup, 50 g walnuts
Notes
- Pumpkin purée: use 100% pumpkin, not sweetened pumpkin pie filling. Homemade roasted pumpkin or butternut squash purée works – strain it if watery.
- Pumpkin spice: mixed spice is the easy UK option. in the US swap for pumpkin spice.
- Apples: choose firm eating apples such as Braeburn, Pink Lady or Cox, which hold their shape when cooked.
- Vegan: use plant milk and dairy-free butter for both the pancakes and the apples.
- Nut-free: leave out the walnuts or swap them for toasted pumpkin seeds.
- Gluten-free: use a plain gluten-free flour blend and gluten-free baking powder.
- Storage: keep the pancakes in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months, and reheat in the toaster or oven. The apples keep in the fridge for 3 days – warm them through gently in a pan.
Nutritional Information
Find this recipe online:
https://theflexitarian.co.uk/recipe-items/pumpkin-pancakes/
I cannot wait to see your posts!
More pumpkin and autumn recipes
- Halloween Pancakes
- Thai Pumpkin Soup
- Apple Pie Overnight Oats
- Pumpkin Bread
- Roasted Winter Squash with Creamy Lentils
- Bonfire Night recipes
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