Fall Feast - Celebrate the Flavors of Fall!
September 22 marks the fall equinox and the official beginning of the new season. We’ve all seen the return of pumpkin spice lattes over the past few weeks, but there are so many other flavors, fruits, and veggies that are iconic of the fall season. When planning fall meals and celebrations, don’t forget these delicious seasonal treats!
Apple: The fall apple harvest means hot apple cider, apple cinnamon donuts, caramel apples, apple pies…there are so many ways to incorporate this delicious seasonal fruit into your next meal and gathering. Add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, or ginger and these sweet and delicious treats will warm you on those first chilly evenings!
Pomegranate: This little fruit comes into season each fall with celebratory red colors and bright flavors. Not to mention, pomegranates are packed full of vitamins! Try adding pomegranate to your morning yogurt and granola, or spice up a seasonal salad with these delightful little berries.
Pear: Pears are also in season during the fall months and make any meal sweeter. We like to add them sliced thin on sandwiches, or mixed in with a fall garden salad, and of course a pear tart with cinnamon and ginger makes for an enchanting fall desert!
Maple: At The Original Pancake House in Denver we enjoy hot maple syrup year round at our breakfast table, but maple is a great flavor to add to any dish this time of year. We love to make maple pound cake and maple muffins for a yummy fall treat.
Butternut Squash: We love this little gourd even more than pumpkin! A warm bowl of butternut squash soup on a cool evening is a heavenly comfort meal. We always season with a bit of fall spice such as ginger, nutmeg, and a dash of cinnamon.
The next time you are out for breakfast in Denver; try some of our fall favorite menu items at The Original Pancake House. Our Apple Belgian Waffle and our Apple Pancake are chock full of fresh granny smith apples, with flavors of cinnamon and maple. And Sara’s Pumpkin Pancakes are not to be missed with rich pumpkin, molasses, and pie spices. Happy fall Denver!
Cooking With Apples!
One of our favorite harbingers of fall is the August apple harvest. Apples are such a versatile, delicious, and nutritious fruit and work well in all sorts of sweet and savory dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! At The Original Pancake House, we love to incorporate apples into our 
breakfast and brunch dishes, for example our Apple Pancake – stacked high with fresh sliced Granny Smith apples and cinnamon glaze – can’t be beat! And our golden brown Belgian waffle with fresh minced Granny Smith apples baked inside and lightly dusted with pure Sinkiang cinnamon sugar, whipped butter and warm homemade apple syrup is a memorable apple treat.
Here are a few of our favorite fall apple recipes to try out this season:
Slow Cooker Apple Cider – Perfect for that first cool fall afternoon!
Ingredients:
- 64 oz. apple cider
- 6 chai tea bags
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- 1 vanilla bean, split
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- Apple slices for serving
- Cinnamon sticks for serving
Instructions:
Combine apple cider, chai tea bags, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla bean in slow cooker. Cook on low 3 to 4 hours. Discard tea bags; stir in lemon juice. Serve warm with apple slices and cinnamon stick.
Gruyere and Apple Tarts – These savory little tarts combine all the best flavors of fall with the 
perfect combination of sweet apples and savory cheese.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 small Yellow Onion
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
- 2 large Braeburn apples
- 4 oz. Gruyère
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Sauté onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, on a work surface, roll out puff pastry to a 13 by 10 inch rectangle. Cut dough into four 6 ½ by 5 inch rectangles. Using a sharp knife, score 4 lines to create a ½ inch border all the way around each tart. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking pan.
- Divide half of onion mixture among tarts. Layer apples in 3 slightly overlapping rows on each. Top with remaining onion mixture and cheese. Dot with remaining butter. Bake tarts until apples are tender and cheese is golden, about 20 minutes.
Candied Yams & Apples – This warming side dish goes perfectly with any fall supper and couldn’t be easier to make!
Ingredients:
- 3 lb. yams
- 1 lb. Granny Smith apples
- 2 medium onions
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
- ¼ c. Honey
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss all ingredients in a large bowl to combine. Transfer to a baking dish and bake, stirring occasionally, until yams are tender, about 1 hour. Increase oven to 500 degrees and bake until liquid evaporates and yams are browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
Happy fall, Denver! We look forward to seeing you for breakfast in Denver soon!
Spooktacular Healthy Breakfast Treats!
It’s the time of year when ghosts and goblins pop up everywhere, pumpkins abound, and everyone is excited for Halloween! To get in the mood, we like to make all sorts of fun Halloween breakfasts treats at home. Here are a few healthy ideas to add a little BOO to your breakfast!
Candy Corn Fruit Parfaits
- 1 can (11 ounce) mandarin oranges
- 1 can (20 ounce) pineapple chunks
- 2 6-ounce containers of low-fat vanilla yogurt
- candy corn pieces - for garnish
This is a fun and festive breakfast idea for the fall season - especially around Halloween. It’s ultra-fast to prepare and a healthy way to start the day. Fresh fruit could definitely be used in place of the canned fruit. Depending on the size of your glasses, this recipe makes 2 to 4 parfaits. Layer 1/3 of each glass with pineapple pieces, followed by an equal layer of mandarin oranges. Top each serving with a generous dollop of vanilla yogurt and a decorative piece of candy corn.
Terrifying Toast:
Trim a slice of toast to resemble a hand, foot or finger and then dollop strawberry or raspberry jam so it looks severed and bleeding. You can do the same thing with waffles and pancakes. For a quick, edible ghost, rip a small hole in a piece of toast to act as a mouth and then use chocolate chips or berries to make eyes.
Apple Monster Mouth!
These apple treats make a great Halloween-themed breakfast or snack – and they are healthy! To prepare, cut 
an apple into quarters and then take a slice out of each quarter. Next, poke in almond slivers for the teeth. Alternatively you can spread peanut butter in the inside of the “mouth” and use marshmallows as the teeth.
Every year at The Original Pancake House we like to dress up for the holiday, so if you join us for breakfast in Denver on the 31st, don’t forget to wear your costume! Have a safe and happy Halloween, Denver!
FALLing In Love With Apples
When golden fall leaves start to pop against bright blue skies, we know fall has arrived in Colorado. And when we think of fall at The Original Pancake House, we think of apples! Apples signify the beginning of harvest season and bring a delightful range of flavors to any fall meal. Our favorite fall breakfast in Denver is our Apple Pancake with oven baked fresh Granny Smith apples and pure Sinkiang cinnamon glaze. Read on to learn how to bring the flavors of fall to your breakfast table with this recipe for Apple Pancakes.
Apple Pancakes
2 eggs, well beaten
1 ½ cups of milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
3 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
- Mix the eggs with the milk in a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar together.
- Combine the wet and the dry ingredients and stir in the apples and whatever other flavorings you see fit.
- Heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet over low to medium heat. Drop large spoonful of batter into the pan and cook until golden brown underneath. Flip the pancakes and cook them for an additional two or three minutes.
- Either dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, or keep on a tray in a warmed oven until you are ready to serve them.
From our kitchen to yours, we hope you enjoy this season of sweater weather! Bon Appetit!
Spooktacular Halloween Food and Traditions
With Halloween just around the corner, we wanted to share some spooktacular Halloween food traditions and customs associated with the frightful holiday.
Bobbing for Apples -
The tradition of bobbing for apples has been associated with Halloween for a long time. The Celts believed in the goddess Pomona and the apple was representative of her entity because when sliced open, the seeds formed a pentagram shape. Thus, the apple became an integral tool to determine marriages that occurred in the fall. Young, unmarried couples would bob for apples and the first to bite into one and retrieve it from the floating water or hanging from a string would be deemed the next to marry. Today, bobbing for apples carries a much different meaning and is often played at Halloween parties and other social gatherings. If you’re not up for a game of bobbing for apples, simply stop by one of our two Denver restaurants and experience our delicious Apple Pancake made with oven baked granny smith apples and cinnamon glaze. All the deliciousness without the work!
Pumpkin Carving—
We use pumpkin in our popular Sara’s Pumpkin Pancakes but the yummy, round, orange squash wasn’t always used in cooking and certainly not for carving and Halloween decor. Historically, the Jack-O’-Lantern has an interesting past…and it all starts with a man named Jack. Legend has it, Jack tricked the Devil to win money to live a rich and pleasurable life. However, the Devil sought revenge on Jack for tricking him and after Jack’s death, the Devil sentenced him to walk the Earth forever armed with only a lantern made from a carved turnip. The practice of carving root vegetables eventually found its way to carving pumpkins and the snaggle-toothed Halloween Jack-O’-Lantern was born.
Trick-Or-Treat—
A Halloween highlight for the young and young-at-heart is trick-or-treating - what could be better than dressing up and going door-to-door to receive sweet treats?! However, the practice of trick-or-treating didn’t always have a happy ending. The custom is actually two-fold. The act of dressing up originates from the Celtic tradition that celebrates the end of the year, where it was thought the dead and living would overlap on Halloween. Dressing up like evil entities was thought to defend individuals against the ghosts that would roam the earth on Halloween night. According to the Smithsonian magazine, the act of requesting food door-to-door is recorded as far back as the November 4, 1927 issue of the Backie, Alberta Canda Herald. The practice stemmed from children who were poor who would go door-to-door begging for food, money, or other items and if the residents refused to give them anything, they would find themselves victim to a prank from the begging children—hence the phrase “trick-or-treat.” If you’re looking for a treat without the tricks, we would love to invite you in for a great Denver breakfast. Treat yourself to a delicious Dutch Baby Pancake or Bacon Belgian Waffle in honor of National Pork Month!
What Halloween trick-or-treats does your family participate in? Let us know your family fun Halloween activities and food offerings on Twitter @OPHDenver. Happy Halloween!
Celebrate Fall with APPLES!
Tis the season for apples! One of our favorite fruits at The Original Pancake House Denver, apples are harvested every year from
late August through early October. We love apples so much we feature them in several of our breakfast dishes – the Apple Belgian Waffle, our Potato Pancakes with sour cream and cinnamon apple sauce, and of course the incredible Apple Pancake! To celebrate the apple harvest, we wanted to share a few fun facts about this quintessential American fruit.
- More than 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States, but worldwide there are more than 7,500 varieties of apples. The crabapple is the only variety native to the U.S.
- Apples contain no fat, sodium or cholesterol and are a good source of fiber. The study of apples is known as pomology.
- The pilgrims planted the first apple orchards at the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In colonial times, apples were called “winter banana” or “melt-in-the-mouth.” Today apples are grown in all 50 states.
- The top apple producers around the world are China, United States, Turkey, Poland and Italy. Apples account for 50%of international deciduous fruit tree production. Worldwide, more than 44 million metric tons of apples are harvested each year.
- Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit. Each fruit requires energy from 50 leaves to grow and ripen.
- Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they are refrigerated.
- Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit. The largest apple ever picked weighed 3 pounds. Apples come in all shades of yellow, green and red.
- Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42 pounds each. A peck of apples weighs 10.5 pounds. A bushel of apples weighs about 42 pounds.
- Apples are a member of the rose family.
- It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider and about 2 pounds of apples to fill one apple pie.
And, because we all know “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” here is a great breakfast recipe featuring the mighty apple!
Morning Glory Muffins
Hearty, healthy breakfast muffins
Ingredients:
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1½ cups carrots, grated
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup flaked coconut
- ½ cup raw apple, peeled and diced
- ½ cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in another bowl.
- Add the flour mixture to liquid ingredients, and stir until moistened. Gently fold in remaining ingredients. Pour into well-greased muffin tins, about two-thirds full.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, until light golden on the edges and tops.
And for days when you have plenty of time and want to treat yourself to the best breakfast in Denver, be sure to stop by either our Cherry Hills or Denver Tech Center restaurants and enjoy one of our famous Apple Pancakes!