If you're going to eat pumpkin pancakes, this is your window to do it.
Of course, you could eat these flapjacks spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg anytime, but there's no better time than these few weeks before Halloween when we start to gear up our palates for a whole season of festive eating.
Malika Ameen, whose new book "Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking" (Roost Books, $30) comes out later this month, offers dozens of dishes that will entertain your tongue year-round. Her holiday offerings, like these pancakes, are particularly good.
As always, don't overmix the pancake batter. Leave those small lumps _ they'll cook out of the pancakes on the hot griddle. Vietnamese cinnamon has a particular warmth that Ameen likes for these pancakes, but any cinnamon will do.
