Gingerbread Pancakes

Sunday is brunch day, and this weekend we invited a few friends over for a proper brunch feast. Stu made parfaits, layering fresh berries, yogurt, and granola in plastic cups. Our guests brought, at our request, vegan sausage, and we pulled out some vegan bacon to beef up the offerings (pun, sadly, intended). And Perrin and I collaborated on a batch of gingerbread-walnut pancakes with poached pears. This means I made pancake batter and she grated ginger and licked the molasses spoon. They turned out well, particularly the pears, which I poached with honey, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. However, I generally prefer my pancakes a bit moister and fluffier. I usually find that a bit of lemon juice helps, but sadly we had no lemons on hand, and I was wary of the combination of fresh ginger, cinnamon, molasses, and lemon juice.

However, when I was re-searching for the recipe I ended up using, I came across the Epicurious.com/Gourmet version, which gives homage to our mutual inspiration: La Note, in Berkeley, CA. This version calls for a whole quarter cup of...yep, lemon juice. Also, they use coffee instead of molasses, which sounds like a really interesting twist. Next time, I'm trying these.