Now… what on earth does all that have to do with pumpkin spice pancake syrup? I promise these 2 unlikely subjects do in fact actually connect. I don’t know how your vacation planning sessions roll, but mine tend to start with a wicked brunch – you know the kind where there’s something sweet (hint pancakes), bacon or sausage, and scrambled eggs. After we’re properly fed, we spread out the laptop, iPad, phones, and of course pen and paper across the table and get busy trying to figure out how we can possibly cram everything into 1 short week! It would seem that Zion is close (approximately) 4 hours or less away from all sorts of amazing things to see, and we quickly lost control of our plans. Finally we decided to scale back and just see Zion and Bryce Canyon, and come back for a separate trip for some of the surrounding attractions. And.. there’s still so much to figure out in the food department, I know for sure I’ll be taking many batches of my Maple Cinnamon Granola, but beyond that I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me! I think we’ll be relying heavily on Lara Bars and crackers paired with cheese for lunches, but we’ll definitely be getting more creative with dinners. If anyone has a recommendation for jarred pasta sauces that would be awesome too. We’ll be cooking over a little tiny Jet Boil stove, so normally I cook one pot type of meals that are super fast cooking. In the past, we’ve loved cooking our veggies and pasta together, and then adding in a jarred pasta sauce at the end. You can have dinner done in under 15 minutes and it’s super tasty. So… anyways, back to brunch – this pancake syrup is super simple and tastes like the essence of fall. On the practical side, it’s a 1:1 ratio of syrup to pumpkin, so it stretches your pricey maple syrup twice as far! This syrup comes together quickly and keeps in the fridge for up to a week. The pancakes you see in the photos are a version of the popular 2-ingredient pancakes you might have seen floating around. I’ve been tinkering with them (read adding more ingredients) to make them fluffier, but I have had some problem with them sticking – I think this might have to do with my pan but I want to experiment a little more and see before I go handing you the recipe! I like to heat this syrup over very low heat for about 10 minutes to make sure the spices really sink in. Once it comes to a simmer, you turn the heat down and it pretty much takes care of itself with just a couple of stirs along the way. I really do hope the sticking problem is just my pan because I’m really loving these pancakes and I want to share them with you as soon as possible, (and finally here’s the tried and true tested recipe, 4-Ingredient Banana Pancakes). They’re dairy free, grain free, and nut free, yet weirdly enough they’re so fluffy and good! I know the title of this recipe says pancake syrup, but don’t let that slow you down – go ahead and pour it over some waffles too! 4.5 from 2 reviews 2 Tablespoons salted butter 1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon, I used Vietnamese cinnamon 1/8 Teaspoon ground nutmeg pinch of ground cloves 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 1 cup pure maple syrup pinch of sea salt Lower the heat to low and keep the syrup at a bare simmer for 5-10 minutes, whisking occasionally to keep it from sticking, until the spices meld with the syrup. Serve the syrup warm to hot, but not boiling hot over pancakes or waffles. You can also refrigerate it for up to 1 week and rewarm it before serving.
