Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

As I mentioned in my last food post.. Craig and I are LOVING our new deep freeze. We have found it simplifies our life (at least in the figuring out our dinner sense)!

Our son is a pretty good eater. He, basically, likes anything. However, you never know when he will be in the mood to eat. Some days he does GREAT at all three meals, and then many other days, he will do good at one and then hardly eat anything at the others. Who knows.

We like his breakfasts to be pretty simple. We cut up some fruit and give him eggos, frozen pancakes from walmart, or nutri grain bars.. normally.

We decided to go ahead and make these for him and freeze them. It, obviously, cost more upfront, because I didnt have the ingredients, but I have PLENTY to make several more batches of everything, so I know it will end up being more cost efficient.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, ours definitely didnt turn out as pretty as the original. But Jackson sure loves them. The original recipe calls for an icing type sauce to serve with it. We did not make the icing, since these are for Jackson.. and Jackson + any type of syrup = a huge mess.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want this to remain super-liquidy.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

(If freezing, let the pancakes cool completely. Layer in a freezer bag with wax paper between each layer)

Note: I think our cinnamon mixture was a bit too thin.. so it kind of went everywhere. She also suggested to let your batter sit for a minute or so before putting the cinnamon mixture on.. we probably should have done that as well. Ha!