Pumpkin Pancakes With Pancake Mix (IHOP-Copycat)

IHOP pumpkin pancakes are a late-night memory for me before they are a breakfast. Girlfriends, pajamas, a booth at whatever hour that was, then the drive home in the rain to watch Friends reruns until somebody fell asleep on the couch. What I remember about the pancakes themselves is that they were sweeter than they needed to be, sweet before the syrup ever got there. That is the one thing I changed when I started making pumpkin pancakes with pancake mix at home.

These land on a weekday morning as easily as a Saturday, which is why the pan comes out most of October around here. If a box of mix is already how you do pancakes, the copycat McDonald’s pancakes are the other one in our rotation, and they scratch a completely different craving.

My Dad is the one who taught me to turn leftover pancakes into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, two pancakes standing in for the bread. My kids took the idea and ran further with it than he ever did, applying it to crepes, waffles, and, often enough that I have stopped commenting on it, a hard-boiled egg. The pumpkin version is one I actually endorse.

How It Comes Together

Pumpkin puree brings sugar and moisture that a plain pancake batter does not have, and the sugar is the part that changes how these cook. Sugar browns faster than flour does. My first batch came off the griddle dark, gorgeous, and raw in the middle, which is a specific kind of disappointing at seven in the morning.

Medium heat, held steady, is what fixed it. Not medium-low, which leaves them pale and a little sad. Medium, and then accepting that these take a bit longer than plain pancakes do. Preheat the pan fully before the first pour so the surface is evenly hot. A pan with hot spots scorches the first pancake, and then you spend the rest of the batch overcorrecting.

Fold the wet into the dry rather than whisking, and leave the lumps alone. Overmixing gives you a denser pancake, and that matters more here because the puree is already weighing the batter down.

The flip cue arrives later than you expect. Bubbles across the surface, edges set, and the spatula sliding underneath with no resistance. If the spatula drags, they are not ready, whatever the clock says.

Scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full list of ingredients, measurements, and step-by-step instructions.

Ingredient Notes

Pancake mix. I tested this with Bisquick, and the measurements are built around it. Worth knowing: Bisquick pancakes normally call for an egg, and this recipe does not use one. The pumpkin puree is doing that binding work.

Pumpkin pie spice. Use ready-made pumpkin pie spice or mix your own from cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. The same jar carries a pumpkin chai latte if you want the drink to match the breakfast.

Milk. Any dairy or non-dairy milk works. Buttermilk is the upgrade if you have it, and water will do in a pinch without much loss.

Pumpkin puree. Plain canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. Libby’s is what most stores carry. This recipe uses three-quarters of a cup, which leaves most of a can open in your fridge with no plan attached to it. That leftover goes into bread machine pumpkin bread or pumpkin and cream cheese muffins at my house, usually within the week.

Brown sugar. Brown, not white, and this is not a swap I would make in the other direction. The molasses in brown sugar brings a darker, almost caramel note that white sugar cannot, and it is one of the simplest ways I know to make a fall recipe actually taste like fall. Two tablespoons across twelve pancakes is deliberately restrained. These are not meant to arrive sweet before the syrup does.

What If All You Have Is Pumpkin Pie Filling?

I have not tested this, so what follows is math rather than experience.

A half cup of Libby’s pie filling carries roughly 17 grams of sugar against about 4 in plain puree, so the three-quarters of a cup this recipe calls for would bring in close to 20 grams of added sugar. Two tablespoons of brown sugar is about 24 grams. Those are close enough that I would drop the brown sugar entirely rather than try to reduce it, and accept that the caramel note goes with it.

Pie filling is also already spiced, though gently. I would start at half a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice instead of two, taste the batter, and go up from there.

If you try it before I do, tell me how it went in the comments.

Variations

• Chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes. Add half a cup of mini chocolate chips to the batter.
• Nutty pumpkin pancakes. Fold in half a cup of chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts.

How to Serve Pumpkin Pancakes With Pancake Mix

Butter and maple syrup are where we end up most mornings, with chopped pecans when I have remembered to buy them or have them left over from pumpkin pecan waffles. 

If you are building out something bigger, these hold their own on a table of fall brunch ideas alongside eggs and bacon. And if you want the full seasonal treatment, a Starbucks copycat pumpkin spice frappuccino turns a weekday breakfast into something closer to an occasion.