Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Ever since I made these, my husband has been literally begging me to put them up on the blog. In honor of his birthday tomorrow, I am obliging and sharing the deliciousness of this recipe with all of you. I only wish I was able to make them for him in the morning to celebrate, but since he has the day off and I have to be to work by 7:00 AM, I think I'll let him sleep :)

The idea for these came from Lori at Recipe Girl, and I have to say it is a brilliant one at that! Combining the best part of a cinnamon roll (the gooey filling) with a pancake is an idea that I never would have had on my own, but we certainly loved the results! They are more of a special breakfast treat, but they really do end up tasting like a cinnamon roll! Be sure to out the pictures from Lori's site. She was able to get this nice caramelized crust on her pancakes!

I was serving three adults, so I doubled the pancake portion of the recipe resulting in 5 large and 1 small pancakes. I also cut down on the filling to pancake ratio and actually had a fair amount extra leftover after I used all the batter. With the decrease, I didn't quite get the same caramel crust as Lori's cakes, but the pancakes still ended with that great cinnamon roll flavor. My only other change was to make a simple vanilla glaze since I don't routinely keep cream cheese around the house. I know I got 6 thumbs up from my taste testers here (myself included), so if you've got a special morning coming up, keep these in mind. Enjoy

(Printable Recipe)

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients:
Pancakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Cinnamon Filling:
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. cinnamon

Vanilla Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the pancakes, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in milk, oil, and eggs, just until batter is moistened (a few lumps are fine).

In a separate medium bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. It should be the consistency of toothpaste. 

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. You can add more powdered sugar or milk to get it to the correct consistency. Set aside. 

Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup of batter onto the skillet. With a pair of scissors, carefully snip a the very corner off the ziploc bag containing the brown sugar mixture. Squeeze a spiral of the sugar mixture into your pancake batter. When bubbles on the surface begin to pop, carefully flip the pancake and cook until browned on the underside, 1 or 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve. Serve with glaze drizzled over the top.

Yield: 5-6 large pancakes

Overnight Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Well, homemade cinnamon rolls have been on my list of things to make for some time. I have wanted to make them for quite some time, but I am a little weary of yeast-based bread. We do regularly make pizza crust, so I am not quite sure why I have this hesitation. Nonetheless, I still had not attempted homemade cinnamon rolls.

I say that so that this story makes more sense. My husband is currently teaching an interterm class at the college where we received our undergraduate degrees as one of his rotations for school. Interterm is nice because the students get to take classes that are fun and more relaxed - He's teaching "Dr. House's Medical Mysteries." He had warned me that he was going to promise the class treats a couple times in the 3 weeks of the class. Okay, I'm thinking that a batch of chcocolate chip cookes will be pretty quick to whip out. Well, he came home last Friday afternoon proudly proclaiming that the class had settled on cinnamon rolls... Having never made them as mentioned above, I thought this might be an adventure.

Thankfully, I worked this past weekend, and my co-workers were more than happy to be guinea pigs for my first pan. They turned out really well, and we enjoyed warm cinnamon rolls yesterday at the pharmacy. I was actually 1 roll short because my hubby begged me for one before I left the house :-) It was a little more work to ramp up the recipe to make enough for a class of 25, but they still turned out well this morning!

This recipe really made making homemade cinnamon rolls pretty easy. The bread machine makes the dough, and all you really have to do after that is cut them and put them in the refrigerator overnight. I got the dough recipe here from allrecipes.com. I did follow the dough directions, but I both baked and frosted them differently from this recipe. My frosting recipe was from Cooking Light October 2009.

The recipe makes a full 9x13 pan of rolls. They do turn out huge! Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Overnight Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from: allrecipes.com and Cooking Light

Ingredients:
1 c. warm milk (110 degrees F)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 c. margarine, melted
4-1/2 c. bread flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. white sugar
2-1/2 tsp. (1 pkg.) yeast
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2-1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. butter, softened
Frosting:
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
4 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I also used maple extract)
2 c. powdered sugar

Place first 7 ingredients in the pan of a bread machine. Select the dough cycle and press start. The dough can also be made by hand using steps found on allrecipes.com.

After the dough cycle is finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, ina small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 c. softened butter and with cinnamon-sugar mixutre. Roll up dough tightly and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13-inch pan. Cover and set in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, let rolls rest at room temperature for 30-45 mintues. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After resting, bake rolls at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. While rolls are baking combine frosting ingredients. Spread frosting on warm rolls before seving.