Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

These are fairly simple, but I learned a lot from the first batch.  My comments are in red.

Pancakes:

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 Tbls canola oil

1 large egg, lightly beaten

(OR USE BOXED PANCAKE MIX)   I used Bisquick

For Cinnamon Filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted  I used margarine and it worked fine

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbls cinnamon

For Cream Cheese Glaze:

4 Tbls butter

2 ounces cream cheese

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instead, I made a simple glaze of 1 1/2 cups powered sugar, 2 Tbls milk, and 2 drops vanilla

1.  IMPORTANT: Prepare the cinnamon filling first--in medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Scoop filling into a small zip baggie and set aside.  Needs to set for 20-30 minutes to thicken.  

2.  Prepare pancake batter.  In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Whisk in milk, oil, and egg just until batter is moistened. 

3.  OR, if using boxed mix, prepare according to package directions.

4.  Prepare Cream Cheese Glaze.  In medium glass or microwave safe bowl, heat the butter and cream cheese until melted.  Whisk together until smooth, then whisk in powered sugar and vanilla.  Set aside.  OR, if mixing simple glaze, in medium bowl, mix 3 ingredients until smooth -- not runny.

5.  Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Scoop about 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto skillet.  Snip the corner of your cinnamon filling baggie (small snip) and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake.  Keep spiral away from edge of pancake.  When bubbles begin to appear on surface, flip carefully with spatula and cook until lightly browned.  Transfer pancakes to baking sheet and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.

6.  When ready to serve, spoon warm glaze on top of each pancake.

Notes:  Griddle/skillet must NOT be hot--sugar will burn.  Keep heat on medium and cook slowly.  These will make a mess on your cooking surface, but in between batches, I scraped the cooking surface and re-applied cooking spray.  The cinnamon filling seemed to separate a bit in the baggie during the process, but did not seem to negatively affect the pancakes.