Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

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If you love cinnamon rolls for breakfast, you’ll love this jazzed up basic pancake recipe with cinnamon and sugar swirl. The perfect Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!

When you have an extreme love of cinnamon rolls, they are just worth taking the time to make. Sometimes you may not have two hours to make our from scratch cinnamon rolls….or even an hour to make our quick cinnamon rolls. That’s where these cinnamon roll pancakes come to the rescue!

a stack of pancakes with dripping glaze

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

We’ve shared a lot of great pancake recipes with you. I personally love them all, but this one definitely is on the top of my list. Cinnamon rolls have always been a family favorite in our household. These pancakes are almost as good as the real cinnamon rolls.

They’ve got butter. They’ve got sugar. They’ve got cinnamon. They’re soft and fluffy.

These delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes originated from the Amish Griddle Cakes recipe I posted recently. The only difference is the awesome swirl that you put in the middle while they are cooking. The swirl is made of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. My first bite sort of reminded me of warm, gooey, cinnamony buns.

What causes pancakes to rise?

The baking powder in this recipe is what causes the pancakes to rise. Don’t skip it. If you don’t want to use so much baking powder, try using 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder and ½ teaspoon baking soda.

How to Make Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

  • Prepare the sugar/butter mixture first.  Let the sugar mixture cool off to room temperature while you are mixing the pancakes.  If the sugar mixture has thickened a bit, it will stay in a pretty swirl much better.
  • After you’ve ladled the pancake batter on the pan, wait until the cakes bubble and rise before putting on the swirl. This will help it not totally sink to the bottom and mix into the batter.
  • You’ll find it easier to swirl the pancakes if you put the sugar mixture in a Ziploc bag and cut off one corner of the bag.  Then you’ll gently squeeze it out onto the pancakes in a swirl, starting at the center of the pancake and moving to the outside. swirling cinnamon on a pancake
  • Don’t get too close to the edge of the pancake when you are making the swirl. The gooey sugar will run off the pancake.  And if this happens, your pancake will still taste perfectly…it just won’t look quite perfect! pancake cooking on a griddle
  • When the pancakes are done, drizzle the maple cream cheese glaze over the top for some more cinnamon roll flavor!

How many time should you flip a pancake?

Allow the pancake to cook until the top starts bubbling, then flip it and allow it to cook for a minute or two until it is cooked through. You only need to flip it once.

Why are my pancakes not fluffy?

We love a stack of soft fluffy pancakes! In order to keep pancakes soft, you want to make sure you don’t overmix the batter. Think of the batter like quick bread or homemade muffins…the more you mix the batter, the more gluten will form and the tougher the baked good will be. Just mix until combined. It’s ok if there are a few little lumps. They usually cook out!

stack of pancakes with a fork

Can you mix pancakes ahead of time?

Pancakes with baking soda such as this one can be prepared the night before and stored in the refrigerator. This saves the mess of mixing up the batter the morning you want to bake the pancakes.

If after making the first pancake they don’t rise quite as much as you’d like, sprinkle a little more baking powder over the batter and gently mix it in. This should revive the pancakes!

Other Pancake Recipes

stack of pancakes with fork full missing

Other Cinnamon Roll Recipes

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

4.71 from 17 votes
If you love cinnamon rolls, you'll love these Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, complete with a pretty cinnamon/sugar swirl and maple cream cheese glaze!
Servings 10
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

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Ingredients
 

Cinnamon Filling:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter just barely melted
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Pancakes:

Maple Cream Cheese Glaze:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 2- ounces cream cheese at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon maple extract

Instructions
 

For the cinnamon filling:

  • In a bowl, stir together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a Ziploc bag and set it aside so that the mixture thickens a bit.
  • For the maple cream cheese glaze:
  • In the microwave, soften the butter and cream cheese. Mix these two together until they are smooth. Then add in the powdered sugar and maple extract. Stir until smooth and then set aside.
  • For the pancakes:
  • Whisk together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
  • Add in the remaining ingredients and mix. Do not overmix. It's ok if there are a few lumps. They'll cook out during cooking.
  • To make the pancakes, heat a nonstick skillet over medium-heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Scoop about ½ a cup of batter onto the hot pan.
  • Take the Ziploc bag of sugar mixture and snip the corner of the bag. Squeeze the filling to the open corner.
  • When the pancake starts forming bubbles on the top, squeeze the filling onto the pancake in a swirl, starting in the center and working your way out. Be careful not to get too close to the edge of the pancake. Cook for another minute or two, until the other side of the pancake is golden brown. Quickly flip the pancake over and cook it for another minute or two, until the other side of the pancake is golden brown. When you flip the pancake back onto a plate, you'll see the pretty cinnamon roll swirl!
  • Before you put more pancakes on the griddle, wipe the pan with a wet cloth to get all of the sticky sugar off. Do this between each batch of pancakes. Repeat these steps until all of the batter is used!
  • Once your pancakes are done, you can drizzle them with the maple cream cheese glaze.

Nutrition

Calories: 291kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 52mg | Sodium: 217mg | Potassium: 201mg | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 435IU | Calcium: 109mg | Iron: 1mg
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Calories 291
Keyword best cinnamon roll recipe, cinnamon pancakes, easy pancake recipe, how to make pancakes

Inspired by Recipe Girl

A close up of a stack of pancakes

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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Paola Avila
9 years ago

I am definitly triying this tomorrow, only the maple extrac is going to be missing, here it is imposible to find 🙁 Can I replase it with maple syrup?
=)

Diana
4 years ago

These were tasty! We were craving cinnamon rolls but didn’t have any so found this recipe instead. Made for a lovely Sunday morning brunch treat! A quick note, the first one got a little burned on the second side with the sugar – so make sure the heat is turned down when using an electric stove, and cook longer on the first side so the sugar stays for only a short time on the hot surface. Also, we got four really big pancakes out of the batch (we used a little more than a half cup of batter in a… Read more »

Courtenay
4 years ago

Baking powder or baking soda? The ingredient list says powder but the instructions say soda.

Mychel (Michelle)
3 years ago

5 stars
Sweet! When i made this for breakfast today some of my family members said it was delicious! This one of the best pancake recipe i ever had! 🥞🍫🍩😍🍰🎂🧁

Aracelis
3 years ago

5 stars
This is one of the best pancake recipes I’ve ever tried, my kids would say it is definitely the best. The only negative thing I can say is that once you make it your kids will request it every morning.

Sarah
3 years ago

5 stars
Omg these are amazing! I didn’t have maple extract but they were fine without it. Next time I’ll roast some pecans to crush on top. My family loved them. Even my pancake connoisseur 4 year old said he likes them more than his usual chocolate chip ones.

Colleen
6 years ago

5 stars
I made these last night for national pancake day????. My boyfriend loved them and my three kids loved them, even my 5 year old who eats nothing. But ofcourse she loved the sugar lol. We all did. Great recipe!

Laura
3 years ago

Can this be made as cupcakes?

Jill Cannon
6 years ago

Hi! I’m just wondering, this says the pancakes are 291 calories but there is no serving size shown so is that 291 calories per pancake? Thanks!