Pancakes with pumpkin puree and caramelized walnuts

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 70 g butter, soft
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 50 g walnuts (halves)
• 100 g flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 pinch of salt
• 70 g sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 150 ml buttermilk
• 1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g pumpkin flesh (Hokkaido), pureed, weighed ready for cooking
• Butter, for frying
• Powdered sugar, for dusting
• Maple syrup, for serving

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 25 minutes

Halve, deseed, peel, and dice the pumpkin. Boil in a little water until soft, then puree. Melt 20g of the butter in a non-stick pan, then add the brown sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and begins to caramelize. Then add the walnut halves and stir in so that all the nuts are coated with the caramel. Transfer to a piece of aluminum foil to cool. For the pancakes, mix the flour, spices, and salt. (You can find a pumpkin pie spice recipe in my recipes.) Cream the remaining 50g of butter with the sugar until creamy. Stir in the egg yolks one at a time. Then stir in the buttermilk, vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, and finally the flour. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold in with a wooden spoon. Crush the walnuts slightly by hand. Put some butter in a non-stick pan and heat until small bubbles begin to bubble. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of batter to each pancake, ideally cooking two at a time. If the batter gets a bit stiff on the first side, sprinkle some walnuts on top. If you do this right at the beginning, the batter will spread too much. When small bubbles form on top, it’s ready to flip. Then carefully flip it over and finish cooking on that side. Continue this process until all the batter is used up, adding fresh butter as you go. Dust the pancakes with powdered sugar while they’re still warm and serve with maple syrup.