Pear and Gingerbread Pancake Bites

I'm sure that if you're on Pinterest all, you'll have noticed that the posts there move in trends.  

I think one good idea inspires another, and another, and so on.  Before you know it, there are a thousand interesting variations on the same theme.

Lately I've been seeing a lot of recipes for pancake bites, made with pancake batter baked in mini muffin tins.  I think they're a great idea.  Kid's like anything bite sized.  Pancake bites are just made for dunking.  Kids love to dunk.  A plate full of pancake bites and a little dish of maple syrup would be breakfast nirvana for a five-year-old.

After reading a few recipes and scanning my pantry, I realized that I had all the ingredients on hand to make my own version of this breakfast treat. 

I found a good recipe for gingerbread pancakes on Yummly; not too sweet, simple to make, and made with ingredients I always have on hand.  I used it to make my pancake bites, and added in some home canned pears for a little extra flavour.  

To make Pear and Gingerbread Pancake Bites, you'll need:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1-1/4 cups water
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint of home canned pears, drained and diced (Mine are dark in colour because they were canned in brown sugar syrup but any cooked or canned pears will be fine.)

Oil or butter the cups of two mini muffin pans.  This recipe makes 36 pancake bites (1-1/2 pans full.)

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg.

Add in the vanilla extract and molasses and stir until they are completely incorporated into the egg.

Add in the water and mix well.

In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon.

Add the flour mixture to the molasses/egg mixture and stir it just until it holds together in a cohesive batter and all the flour is moistened.  (There will be some lumps in the batter. That's okay.)

Put a few pieces of pear in the bottom of each muffin cup. 

Spoon a little of the pancake batter over the pears in each muffin cup, filling the cups to the top.

Bake the pancake bites in a 350F for about 15 minutes.  They'll puff up like little muffins.

Leave the pancake bites in the pan to rest for about 5 minutes, then slide a knife down the edge of each muffin cup to lift them out.  

They're like little tiny upside down cakes, so I chose to serve my pear and gingerbread pancake bites fruit side up.  I plated ours with a little drawn butter and some honey, for dipping, but they were so tasty that I preferred to eat mine plain.

Pancake bites can be frozen.  Freeze them in their muffin pans, then turn them out and package them in an airtight container or freezer bag.  

To reheat them, place the still frozen pancake bites on a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in a 350F oven until heated through.  If you find they are browning too much, cover them loosely with a sheet of foil.