- 4 Ounces Cream Cheese
- 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream or 1/2 & 1/2 or milk
- 1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar Sifted for smoother consistency
- 1 1/2 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 4 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 Whole Egg
- 1 1/4 Cups Milk
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Optional
- 2 Tablespoons Butter Melted
- 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
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Using a fork or a hand held mixer, whip the cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla and powdered sugar together until smooth. OR skip this whole step and just use your favorite flavored cream cheese.
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Melt butter and let cool slightly or the pancakes will be lumpy.
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Mix the dry ingredients together, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
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In another bowl mix the wet ingredients, egg, milk, vanilla, melted butter and syrup. Room temperature milk is best so that it doesn't combat with the warm melted butter, you can microwave for about 30 seconds if needed.
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Gently pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix with a fork until combined, do not over mix or the pancakes will be dense.
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Gently pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix with a fork until combined, do not over mix or the pancakes will be dense.
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Pour a tablespoon of pancake batter into the muffin top tin inserts, if needed use the back of the spoon to spread the batter. Bake for 2 minutes to set the pancakes so that you can add the filling without it dropping to the bottom of the pancake Do the same for the mini muffins or doughnuts.
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Remove from oven, gently spread a tablespoon of cream cheese on each pancake. It's important to use room temperature cream cheese so that it spreads easily. This is a great time to add chopped fresh fruit to the pancakes for an extra flavor profile. Then pour a tablespoon of pancake batter over the flavored or sweetened cream cheese. Return to oven and bake an additional 6 minutes for pancakes or 10 minutes for mini muffins or doughnuts. The top of the pancakes, mini muffins and doughnuts will NOT turn a golden brown. Use a toothpick to test if done, toothpick should come out clean.
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This is a harder method than the baked muffin top pan but makes more traditional looking pancakes.
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Swirl about 2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese Filling onto a parchment paper lined baking tray, swirl with the back of a spoon into a 4" diameter circle, freeze for at least an hour or overnight until you have a solid disk.
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Warm a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Remove 2-3 cream cheese fillilng disks at a time from the freezer, if you take too many disks out they will start to melt and it's a mess to get them onto the pancake batter. Spoon 1/4 Cup batter (use a measuring cup for even size pancakes and to make sure that the size is appropriate for the frozen cream cheese disk). Immediately lay down a frozen disc of cream cheese filling and immediately pour another 1/4 Cup batter on top. If you wait too long the second layer of pancake will run over and outside of the bottom layer producing an uneven pancake and thin coverage for the cream cheese filling. This makes it messier to carry when you are ready to eat and walk.
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Eat immediately or freeze for later.
-Pancakes will keep for 5 days in the refrigerator. To freeze, place pancakes on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer and freeze, once frozen you can put the pancakes in a ziplock bag marked with recipe name and date frozen. Reheat in microwave for 1 minute and enjoy.
-Option: Add 2 Tablespoons jelly once the frozen disk is placed on the pancake batter.
-If you are short on time and can't wait for the cream cheese filling to freeze into solid disks, then you can fill a zip lock bag with the cream cheese filling, snip a small hole on one of the bottom corners and squeeze onto the pancakes (step 5). The cream cheese filling doesn't spread as evenly as using the frozen disks, but in a pinch it works.