Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes are plain pancakes cooked with a swirl of cinnamon sugar paste and served with a glaze of thin icing. All the ease of a pancake with the taste of a cinnamon roll.

It's Pancake Day! And we love pancakes! Yeah! 

I was wondering what kind of pancakes we'd have this year. I have several pancake recipes on this blog and I could have made one of those but I thought I'd like something a bit different this year. I started searching through Google and came across lots of pancake recipes but they were either about the same as mine or something too complicated for an everyday meal. Who wants to separate eggs, cream and fold, etc when making breakfast or supper? Not me. As I was looking I noticed Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes were quite popular and fairly easy to make. You could actually make these with any basic pancake recipe or box mix and add the swirl and glaze and have pretty good pancakes.  So with this in mind I hit the kitchen this morning armed with ideas and Mom's Pancakes, a basic recipe just right for a swirl of cinnamon.

The gist of the recipe is a plain pancake cooked with a swirl of cinnamon sugar paste and then glazed with a little thin icing. So you get the ease of a pancake with the taste of a cinnamon roll. How tasty is that? Very! But, I must be honest and tell you it's a messy procedure. It all goes well until you flip the pancake and the cinnamon swirl starts to melt and bubble up and ooze from the underside of the pancake. There is nothing to be done but wait it out until the pancake is fully cooked and removed from the pan or griddle. Before you can cook more pancakes the pan/griddle has to be cleaned but fortunately that proved to be a quick and easy task. I wiped the worst of the sticky goo with a paper towel and then I wiped it over with a wet rag to remove any remaining sugar, reoiled and started cooking more pancakes.

I've adapted my pancake recipe to hold the swirl a little better. If the pancake mix is too thin the swirl slides off as it cooks. If you are using a boxed pancake mix leave out a tablespoon or two of the liquid. 

Printable recipe at end of post.

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

• 2 cups flour 
• 5 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1¾ cups milk
• ⅓ cup oil or melted butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

• Cinnamon Swirl, recipe below
• Icing Glaze, recipe below

How to make it:

Prepare Cinnamon Swirl and lay aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk dry ingredients together.  In another bowl beat eggs and add milk, oil and vanilla.  Gently stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until almost smooth.  A few lumps won't hurt. Turn burner to medium and lightly grease griddle or frying pan. I set my griddle to 350 degrees so the cinnamon sugar would not burn while the pancakes cooked through. When the pan is hot ladle or spoon pancakes on by one-quarter cupful measures. I used a number 16 scoop which holds 2 ounces or ¼ cup. 

Carefully squeeze a spiral of the cinnamon sugar mixture (see recipe below) on top of each pancake starting in the centre and coming to the outside leaving a wide edge.  Cook until bubbles break the surface. Turn and cook until lightly browned on the underside.  

Serve hot pancakes with the Icing Glaze (see recipe below) or with your favourite syrup or applesauce. 

Makes about 12-14 pancakes. 

Note: The cinnamon swirl will melt on the underside and ooze out so you will have to clean the griddle in between each batch that gets cooked. I used a paper towel to wipe most of the sticky mess off the griddle and then wiped it over with a wet rag to clean the remainder. 

Cinnamon Swirl

• ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

How to make it: 

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Spoon into the corner of a plastic sandwich bag and lay aside. When it's time to use the swirl cut the corner off the bag so it can be squeezed out on to the pancake surface.

Icing Glaze

• 1 cup icing sugar
• Tiny pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon soft butter
• 2-3 tablespoons milk
• Few drops vanilla, optional

How to make it:

Blend all together until smooth only adding enough milk to make an icing that will drip or drizzle. 

Cream Cheese Glaze: Add ¼ cup very soft cream cheese and beat in until smooth. You may have to adjust the milk or icing sugar if using the cream cheese.

Mix the brown sugar, melted butter and cinnamon together to make a smooth paste. Place in the corner of a plastic sandwich bag. When ready to use, snip the corner off the bag so the paste can be piped on the top of each pancake.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk dry ingredients together.  In another bowl beat eggs and add milk, oil and vanilla. 

Gently stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until almost smooth.  A few lumps won't hurt. 

Turn burner to medium and lightly grease griddle or frying pan. I set my griddle to 350 degrees so the cinnamon sugar would not burn while the pancakes cooked through. When the pan is hot ladle or spoon pancakes on by one-quarter cupful measures. I used a number 16 scoop which holds 2 ounces or ¼ cup. 

When the pan is hot ladle or spoon pancakes on by one-quarter cupful measures. I used a number 16 scoop which holds 2 ounces or ¼ cup. 

Carefully squeeze a spiral of the cinnamon sugar mixture (see recipe below) on top of each pancake starting in the centre and coming to the outside leaving a wide edge.  

Cook until bubbles break the surface. 

Turn and cook until lightly browned on the underside.  This is when the cinnamon swirl will start to melt and ooze out from under the pancake and leave a gooey, sticky mess to clean up. I forgot to take a picture of the mess and had to stage this photo. Fortunately the mess is quick and easy to clean up in between cooking each lot of pancakes.

See the delicious cinnamon swirl just waiting to be dressed with a little icing glaze?

To make the glaze mix icing sugar, butter and milk together until smooth and creamy. It should be just thin enough to drizzle over the pancakes. If you'd like to make a cream cheese glaze add about a quarter cup of soft cream cheese to the mix.

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes so easy to make with the taste of a cinnamon roll.

To print click on arrow upper right side.⇩