Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

You know what’s lame? The fact that I mentioned in my previous post that I’m a just-not-into-breakfast kinda girl and guess what just so accidentally happens to be my first recipe post? Pancakes! Yes pancakes…oh the irony!

These aren’t your ordinary pancakes. These delicious goodies are swirled in cinnamon yumminess!  Think of these as smushed cinnamon buns because they taste and smell just like one. This just might be my new favorite way of making pancakes!

Let’s pause and take a short break. Feel free to walk away and stretch those legs, but do please come back to read the rest of this post and to see sexy pics of pancakes! You’ve been warned. I am now going to rant about my iffy relationship with pancakes. I cannot stand eating them plain, it makes me cringe. I have to incorporate something (anything!) into them. I love putting in fresh blueberries, bananas, strawberries, chopped up apples chunks…anything that makes them taste less like dough and more like…well I don’t really know! And it’s a great way to include fruit into my diet.

Welcome back! Now on to the recipe:

FOR THE PANCAKES

• I took the “Semi-Homecooking” route and used Trader Joe’s Pancake Mix. 

FOR THE CINNAMON SWIRLY FILLING

• 1/2 cup of melted butter
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons of flour

In a bowl, prepare you pancake mix according to the box. 

In another bowl for the cinnamon filling, mix the butter, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and flour. Scoop that delicious filling into a ziplock baggy or piping bag and set aside.

Now on to the fun part. Melt some butter on a nice hot skillet. Pour pancake batter, then pipe the cinnamon filling into a swirl on the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear, that’s when it’s ready to be flipped and cook for another 2 minutes. 

swirly time

I opted to skip the Vanilla Cream Syrup. Alone, they taste so good! Love the crunch from the sweet cinnamon filling! With syrup, just as good!

A FEW NOTES…

When I try a new recipe, I follow them exactly. But in my opinion, the amount of butter used for the filling is unnecessary. I think 1/4 cup of melted butter should be sufficient. And be careful, do not use a small ziplock baggy or else the melted butter will be spewing out of the top when you go in for the squeeze to pipe. Trust me, it is a ooey mess! I wish I had done it sooner but when you’re done mixing the filling, I suggest you pour out the melted butter that’s floating on top. You really don’t need the extra fat! Other than that, everything was delicious! In fact, this recipe will definitely be used again and again.

Please excuse my terrible photo taking skills! Can you tell I’m a total amateur at this? LOL. As soon as I finish graduate school, I want to enroll in cooking classes! You can bet that plating techniques will be one of my top choices!

(For the record, this was made at noon and consumed by 2ish pm. So in my defense, I am calling it lunch!)

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