The Sweet Secret Ingredient For Making Gilmore Girls' Pumpkin Pancakes

Gilmore Girls fans know that autumn vibes pair naturally with the show since it feels like fall most of the time in the show's fictional town of Stars Hollow. Both the show's aesthetic and its storyline create a warm, cozy environment that pairs perfectly with pumpkin spice. Die-hard fans will remember the pumpkin spice pancakes that the eponymous girls get treated to at Luke's Diner. 

Maybe it's the childhood memories of parents making them on lazy weekend mornings, but there's something about pancakes that always gives us the feels. When you add pumpkin spice to the equation, they're that much better (especially if you're using a recipe as easy as ours). To go full Gilmore Girls, though, you may need to consider an extra ingredient on top. Homemade cinnamon butter, just like they had in Stars Hollow, is easy to make at home and can be prepped well in advance (if that's your thing). 

There are so many different ways to make cinnamon butter that it's hard to go wrong. The simplest and most obvious is to start with a stick of softened butter (room temperature) and beat it with equal parts honey and powdered sugar. Then, add cinnamon and salt to taste. You can keep the finished product in a bowl, or to be extra-fancy, you can pipe it through a pastry bag. 

There are many more varieties of cinnamon butter: You can try brown sugar in place of the powdered sugar and honey (though the texture will be a bit grainier), and experiment with using less cinnamon — anywhere from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon should do it. Both salted and unsalted butter will work, but you can play with recipes and see what hits the savory-sweet spot for you. You might appreciate starting with a bit more salt in your butter to balance the sweet additions. Vanilla extract or paste gives the butter an additional, fragrant boost that deepens the flavors. Maple syrup goes naturally with the other ingredients, too, but be careful not to overdo it if you'll be serving your pancakes with maple syrup on top!

One of the best things about cinnamon butter is how it gives that extra touch to so many different baked goods. Fall season-flavored treats — apple, pumpkin spice, and maple flavors — go well with cinnamon, so there's no need to limit yourself to pancakes. Just like regular butter, it will keep in your fridge for quite a while — if you don't eat it all first, that is.