Leftover roast pumpkin becomes pancakes for Saturday breakfast

At the end of October there is almost always a box of roast pumpkin in our fridge: the last wedges from Thursday's supper, or the flesh that came out of the lantern and went into the oven. On Saturday morning that box becomes a plate of soft orange pancakes, and nobody at the table remembers that it was ever a vegetable.

The idea is simple. Cooked pumpkin, mashed until smooth, goes into an ordinary pancake batter instead of some of the milk. It makes the pancakes moist and gently sweet, with a lovely colour, and it uses up something that might otherwise sit at the back of the fridge until it is too late.

First, the pumpkin itself. I use pumpkin that was roasted or steamed and then kept properly: cooled, covered and in the fridge within two hours of cooking, and used within two days. If the box has been in there longer than that, or the pumpkin smells sour or looks slimy, it goes in the bin, not in the pancakes. Roast pumpkin is best, because it is drier and sweeter than boiled; if yours is very wet, leave it in a sieve for ten minutes to drain.

I scoop the flesh away from the skin and mash it with a fork until there are no lumps. For one batch I need about 250 g, which is roughly a cupful.

The batter takes five minutes. In a large bowl I mix 150 g of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a tablespoon of sugar, a pinch of salt and a good pinch of ground cinnamon. In a jug I beat two eggs with the mashed pumpkin and 100 ml of milk. Then I pour the wet into the dry and stir just until there is no dry flour left. A few small lumps are fine; overmixing makes the pancakes tough. The batter should be thick, so it drops slowly from a spoon.

While I cook, the children always want to lick the spoon, and this is one batter they can't. It has raw egg and raw flour in it, and neither should be eaten uncooked. So the spoon goes in the sink, and they wait for the first pancake instead. I wash my hands after cracking the eggs.

I heat a frying pan over a medium heat with a little oil or butter. Not too hot: pumpkin pancakes are thick and sweet, so they brown quickly on the outside and need time to cook in the middle. I drop in tablespoons of batter, spreading each one a little with the back of the spoon, and leave them for two or three minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the edges look set. Then I turn them and give them another two minutes.

I always break the first one open to check. It should be fluffy and cooked all the way through, with no wet batter in the centre. If the outside is dark before the middle is ready, the heat goes down.

I keep the cooked pancakes warm on a plate under a clean tea towel while I fry the rest. We eat them with a spoonful of yoghurt or soured cream, a drizzle of honey for the grown-ups and older children, or apple sauce. Honey is not for babies under one year old, so for a baby I serve them with plain yoghurt only.

Leftover pancakes keep well. I cool them, keep them covered in the fridge and eat them within two days, warmed in a dry pan or the toaster until hot. They also freeze: I lay them flat in a bag with paper between them and toast them straight from frozen.

Leftover pumpkin pancakes. Makes about 12. About 30 minutes. You need 250 g mashed roast pumpkin, 2 eggs, 100 ml milk, 150 g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp sugar, a pinch of salt and cinnamon, and oil for frying. Mix the dry ingredients, beat the eggs with pumpkin and milk, and stir together. Fry spoonfuls over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes on each side, until cooked through.

What does the leftover pumpkin in your fridge turn into?