Julie Clark
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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 homemade cinnamon rolls….or even an hour to make our quick cinnamon rolls. That’s where these cinnamon roll pancakes come to the rescue.
They give you all the flavor you love in a cinnamon roll, with half the work.
Why you’ll love Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
They’ve got butter. They’ve got sugar. They’ve got cinnamon. They’re soft and fluffy. And that cream cheese glaze? Irresistible.
These delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes originated from the homemade pancakes recipe we’ve made for decades. The only difference is the cinnamon swirl that you pipe in the middle while they are cooking.
The cinnamon-sugar mixture is made of melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
How to Make Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
- Prepare the cinnamon swirl mixture first. Mix together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. 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.
- Then mix the pancake batter. Whisk together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, salt and milk. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix. Do not over mix.
- Cook the pancakes. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Pour about 1/3-½ 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, until the other side of the pancake is golden brown. Using a thin spatula, quickly flip the pancake over and cook it for an additional 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. Then repeat with the remaining batter!
- Make the maple cream cheese frosting. In a bowl with an electric mixer, mix Mix together the butter and cream cheese until they are smooth. Then add in the powdered sugar and maple extract. Mix until smooth and drizzle over pancakes before serving.
Make Pancake Batter 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times 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!
If you love our cinnamon roll pancakes, you’ll also have to try our French Toast waffles!
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
If you love cinnamon rolls, you'll love these Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, complete with a pretty cinnamon swirl and maple cream cheese glaze!
Servings 10
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Swirl:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter just barely melted
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
For the Pancakes:
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups 2% milk
For the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon maple extract or vanilla extract
Instructions
For the cinnamon swirl:
- 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. ¼ cup unsalted butter, ⅓ cup light brown sugar, ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
Mix the pancakes:
- Whisk together the flour, sugar and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside. 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 3 teaspoons baking powder
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, salt and milk. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 large egg, ¾ teaspoon salt, 1 ¼ cups 2% milk
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix. Do not over mix. It's ok if there are a few lumps. They'll cook out.
Make the pancakes:
- To make the pancakes, heat a nonstick skillet over medium-heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Scoop about 1/3-½ 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, until the other side of the pancake is golden brown. Quickly flip the pancake over and cook it for an additional 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.
For the maple cream cheese glaze:
- In a bowl with an electric mixer, mix Mix together the butter and cream cheese until they are smooth. Then add in the powdered sugar and maple extract. Mix until smooth and then set aside. ¼ cup unsalted butter, 2 ounces cream cheese, ¾ cup powdered sugar, ½ teaspoon maple extract
- Once your pancakes are done, drizzle them with the maple cream cheese glaze.
Notes
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. Reheat in the microwave.
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 10 pancakes, with 1 pancake being 1 serving. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. **
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
Inspired by Recipe Girl
Can this be made as cupcakes?
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! 🥞🍫🍩😍🍰🎂🧁
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.
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.
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 »
Baking powder or baking soda? The ingredient list says powder but the instructions say soda.
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!
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!
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?
=)