Thanks to this classic blend of warm spices, these pancakes almost trick your palate into thinking it's Thanksgiving time any time of year. These are so flavorful you don't even really need to put syrup on them. I don't want to get on the bad side of "Big Syrup" though so I'll toe the company line and tell you it's your duty to put real maple syrup on all pancakes.

Makes 6 pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups almond or soy milk

2 tsp vinegar (white or apple cider)

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

2 Tbsp oil

1 tsp vanilla

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl. 

In a medium bowl combine your vinegar and almond or soy milk to make vegan buttermilk. Stir and let it sit a minute.

Add the flax seed to the milk and whisk it together for about a minute. 

Add the oil and vanilla to the milk mixture and stir to combine.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently combine with a spoon or spatula (or use the essential Frankenstein tool the "spoonula"). Do not over-mix your batter. It should only take no more than 20 strokes to combine and you want to leave some clumps of flour. Shockingly, over-mixing pancake batter doesn't appear to be on this list but I do know there's a special place in hell reserved for such offenders.

Allow the batter to rest for about 10 minutes before you start to cook your pancakes. While the batter is resting you can start to clean up the mess you've made and begin to preheat your griddle. You can test your griddle to see if it's hot enough by flicking a few drops of water on it. If they immediately sizzle and evaporate, you should be good to go.

Lightly grease the griddle and pour the batter onto it forming pancakes that are roughly 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Once you see the edges of the pancake start to look dry and you see some bubbles coming up to the top, flip the pancake and cook the other side until it's golden brown.

As you make the pancakes keep them warm in a low temperature oven.

Serve them with vegan margarine and real maple syrup.  

Nutritional information: Per pancake 175 cal., 3.75 g protein, 9.5 g fat