Each fall, my household and I drive an hour north from our dwelling to go apple selecting in New York’s Hudson Valley. It’s the spotlight of the season for me: We spend the day strolling by way of a good looking orchard in quest of completely ripe apples, and after half a dozen doughnuts and a cup of scorching cider, we head dwelling with our trunk filled with fruit. Within the days that comply with, I exploit the apples as rapidly as I can. I make and freeze apple pies and galettes, bake muffins, and simmer saucy compotes. I toss recent apples into my salads and eat the fruit sliced and slathered with nut butter, desperate to take advantage of our haul earlier than it spoils. 

This 12 months, my Birmingham, Alabama-based check kitchen colleague Tricia Manzanero Stuedeman impressed me to make use of a few of my freshly picked fruit to make a stack of fluffy, tender pancakes that style identical to my favourite fall dessert: apple pie. Filled with grated apples and spiced with a combination of floor cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, Tricia’s apple pie pancakes are tender and frivolously candy, with vibrant pomaceous taste. Her recipe is the results of loads of trial and error: She whisked collectively many batches of batter and flipped many, many pancakes till she zeroed in on a components for a crowd-pleasing breakfast that is actually spectacular and fairly straightforward to make too.

Tricia’s recipe makes use of a intelligent method. As a substitute of incorporating applesauce or apple chunks into the pancake batter—which can lead to dense pancakes that stay moist within the heart or apples that stay uncooked even after the pancake has totally cooked—she grates recent Golden Scrumptious apples, tosses them with mild brown sugar, and lets the fruit sit for a number of minutes. This helps soften the apples, guaranteeing they cook dinner evenly within the batter, and releases a few of the fruit’s extra liquid, which Tricia then makes use of to convey the pancake batter collectively.

Considered one of Tricia’s different tips for these pancakes is utilizing pumpkin pie spice, a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, as a substitute of apple pie spice. The latter sometimes solely consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and whereas scrumptious, lacks the depth of taste Tricia was in search of. “I personally discover pumpkin pie spice tastes extra balanced and sophisticated,” Tricia says. A touch of additional cinnamon brings it collectively, giving the pancakes a heat, spiced kick.

Although the pancakes themselves are excellent, it’s the garnishes—a spiced apple compote, toasted pecans, and a maple syrup–sweetened whipped cream—that basically take it excessive. Collectively, the pancakes, compote, and whipped cream evoke the flavors of basic apple pie à la mode—if you wish to go 100% à la mode, go forward and swap the whipped cream for vanilla or butter pecan ice cream. You can definitely skip the accouterments and hold it easy with a drizzle of maple syrup, however take it from me—you in all probability received’t wish to.

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