Carrot Cake Pancakes

I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while but kept passing it over because it seemed like a lot of work to grate all those carrots when all I wanted was pancakes.  I realize I made a 3 bowl dirtying, mixer requiring waffle recipe on a weekday, but apparently on a weekend grating carrots is too much work.  I don't quite understand the logic myself.  However, since my recipes to try bookmarks folder is too long to even begin to sort through I decided it was time to actually try some of them and these sounded good on a lazy Sunday morning. 

I only made a few small changes to this recipe, the biggest of which was to add raisins, but if you're not a fan of raisins they can be left out.  I also changed the nuts to pecans since I prefer them over walnuts in carrot cake.  The result was a pancake that tasted a lot like carrot cake.  Which I suppose was the point but still, these were really good. 

Carrot Cake Pancakes
Adapted from Cooking Light 
(Makes 12 4-inch pancakes)

1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
pinch cloves (approx 1/16 teaspoon)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups grated carrots (approx. 3 large carrots)
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/4 cup raisins
butter or canola oil for greasing pan
chopped pecans and maple syrup for serving

In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.  In a smaller bowl whisk together brown sugar, buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla, and eggs.  Stir wet ingredients into dry until just combined.  Stir in grated carrots, pecans, and raisins.  Batter will be thicker than regular pancake batter. 
Heat electric griddle to 325°F or stove top griddle or skillet over medium heat and lightly grease with butter or oil.  Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup pour batter onto cooking surface.  Since the batter is thick I used the bottom of my measuring cup to level them out, they don't spread much when cooking.  Cook until small bubbles form and edges appear dry, for me this was about 4 minutes on an electric griddle.  Flip pancakes and cook an additional 1-2 minutes on other side.  Serve with additional chopped pecans and maple syrup.