Food Review: Pioneer’s Pumpkin Spice Pancake Mix

It’s not secret on this blog, I don’t think: I love food, and I’m particularly fond of breakfast food. To that end, I’m always on the hunt for a new flavoring of pancake mix, and with it being fall, where everything gets the pumpkin spice treatment from cereal to coffee to to even pumpkin spice Pringles, if you can believe it (which, I mean, I would try ’em), it’s not a shock that Pioneer busted out the “limited edition” pumpkin spice package of pancake mix. As the package indicates, it’s made with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and “other natural flavors.”

I’m fine with pumpkin spice. I’m mostly interested in it as it regards coffee and creamer. There’s a good pumpkin spice creamer I got into a couple months ago, and of course, I’m a fan of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte, or the PSL, as the hip kids call it. I literally picked it up the first day it was available and picked it up again two more times that week. But even the creamer after a while begins to lose its pumpkin spice flavoring and effect. Overall, it’s probably a good thing that the pumpkin spice psychosis we all undergo in the fall is “limited edition,” as it were.

Since this is a complete pancake mix, it’s fairly quick and easy. It’s also different in that it’s one package, so it’s not like you’re going to do half the package and save the other half for later, although I suppose you could since technically one serving size is half a cup for approximately two four-inch pancakes, and there’s three servings overall. But where’s the fun in all of that? I filled about half a bowl with the full package and added thereabouts (I guess, mostly because I couldn’t find my measuring cup) the required three-fourths of water to the dry mix. Stirred. Not too much, though, because then it gets runny. Dolloped some oil on the pan, which was set on low-medium heat, and made this funky-looking pancakes:

I admit, they’re not pretty. I’ve never been the aesthetic cook/baker. I also, of course, added a slathering of butter and, as if that wasn’t enough, a healthy drop of buttered-syrup. That’s why breakfast is the best meal of the day, folks! The sugary deliciousness.

The pumpkin spice flavor came through, much more than the Berry Cap’n Crunch pancake mix I reviewed a couple months ago. So, on that score since that’s the gimmick here, it’s a success, right? Yup, but it also tasted good, so there’s that. Let’s be real: it’s hard to get pumpkin spice, butter and syrup wrong. That combination is just a nice mashup of sweetness with a healthy hint of spice to be mouth-watering. I gobbled up my ugly pancakes in no time.

Also, am I the only one who gets tired of making regular-sized pancakes after a few of them, and by the last one or two, I’m doing ginormous pancakes to get rid of the rest of the mix? Those are by far the ugliest of the batch, but also the most fun to spill the mix out across that pan.

I would definitely get Pioneer’s pumpkin spice pancake mix again next fall, although next time, I might have to get two packages, as I would love to try the pumpkin spice, walnut, and cranberry bread recipe on the back (as seen below). That sounds heavenly.

Do you like the pumpkin spice flavoring? Do you get into that? And if so, what’s your go-to fall pumpkin spice craziness? Would you try these pumpkin spice pancakes?