Sensational Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

Have you ever had IHOP's Cinn-a-Stack pancakes? If you have, you know that they're just about the best thing in the world. I only get them once in awhile, because I seem to only make it to IHOP when I have house guests. The nearest one is about 5 minutes up the road, so there's no reason I couldn't go more often, I just usually prefer somewhere with a drive-thru when I'm eating alone.

To satisfy my cravings, I decided to come up with my own version of a cinnamon bun pancake. They turned out wonderfully, and pretty close to the real deal. I had to share this with the world, so everyone can have Cinn-a-Stack without even leaving the house. Heck, you don't even have to leave your pajamas!

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

Ingredients

Icing:

- About 2oz. cream cheese - softened

- 1/4 C. milk

- 8 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Filling:

-  1/2 C. packed brown sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

- pinch of salt

- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Pancakes:

- 1 1/2 C. flour

- 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 1 heaping Tbsp. sugar

- 1 1/4 C. milk

- 1 large egg

- 3 Tbsp. butter - melted

Method

- To make the icing, simply whisk together the soft cream cheese, milk, and powdered sugar. Start with about 5-6 Tbsp. of the sugar, and add the rest until you get the desired consistency. 

- For the filling, place the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a small saucepan. Heat and stir over low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is liquid. Keep over the lowest heat until ready to use. After awhile, the mixture will be come less liquid, and more grainy.

- For the pancakes, place the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk together to eliminate any clumps. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk, egg, and melted butter. Stir together until well combined. Let the mixture sit for 2-5 minutes. The longer it sits before cooking, the fluffier the pancakes will be!

- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, pour in the batter about a half a cup at a time, and brown on both sides. Stack the pancakes as they come out of the pan, spreading a few tablespoons of the filling on top of each as they hit the plate.

- When all of the batter is used, pour the icing over the stack, close your eyes, and pretend that you're at IHOP!

Enjoy!

Welcome Back Breakfast

Well, hello there, Blogosphere! How have you been? Long time, no see!

I spent the last few weeks at home in PA, and I decided that when I got back to my VA life, I would start blogging again. As you can see, my page has a new look, and I'm going for a fresh start. I have some adventures that I want to go on, and a list of new recipes that I want to try. My contract at the park has ended, and I'm unemployed for the time being, so blogging/cooking/photography will be a good way to stay busy!

To kick things off, I tried a new recipe for breakfast this morning.

They're "Breakfast Cups". Toast, bacon, and eggs all married together. They're simple and delicious, and it's all stuff that I had on hand. I used whole wheat bread and turkey bacon, so they're even fairly healthy!

Breakfast Cups

Ingredients

2 slices whole wheat bread
2 slices bacon
2 large eggs
salt and pepper

Method
- Spray 2 custard cups (or 2 cups of a large muffin tin) with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

- Fry bacon in a skillet for about a minute on each side, to remove some grease and start the crisping.

- Trim crusts off of the bread and discard. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin. Press the flattened bread into the greased custard cups, making sure there are no holes. Cut the strips of bacon in half, and lay on top of the bread.

- Crack an egg into each cup, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

- Place custard cups on a small baking sheet, and place in the preheated oven. Bake at 375 degrees F for 16-18 minutes, until the egg whites are solid but the yolks are still slightly runny.

- Run a knife around the edge to make sure the bread is loose, and remove to a plate. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of o.j. and enjoy!

Filling, nutritious, and kind of fun!

Enjoy!

Baked Coffee Cake French Toast

I made french toast for supper! What? I'm an adult. I can eat whatever I want.

I'm back in Virginia after two weeks at home in PA. I didn't want to run to the grocery store today, and I happened to have everything I needed to make this. Plus, I got to use my new cast iron skillet that I got from my gram for Christmas!

My time at home was wonderful! I had planned on staying for a little over a week, but it turned into two weeks when I couldn't make myself leave! I took lots of pictures, and there may be a post soon about the places I went and people I saw while I was home! It's funny how all through high school and college, I just wanted to move away to somewhere fun and exciting. Now, I'd rather be there with my family and old friends.... Maybe I'm growing up or something? Huh.

At least I'm not so grown up that I can't have french toast for supper!

Baked Coffee Cake French Toast

(adapted from the Joy the Baker cookbook)

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

10 slices of slightly stale whole wheat bread

4 eggs

1 1/2 C. vanilla soy milk

1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/3 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Topping:

1/2 C. flour

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 C. cold butter 

Method

- Melt the tablespoon of unsalted butter in a cast iron (or any oven-friendly) skillet. Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with the butter. Remove from heat.

- Cut the bread diagonally. Arrange the slices of bread in the buttered skillet, pointed side facing up. 

- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla until well-incorporated. Pour the mixture over the bread in the skillet, covering every slice as much as possible. (The bread will not be submerged.)

- Cover the skillet tightly with plastic wrap. (My wrap wouldn't cling to the cast iron, so I added a lid, too.) Refrigerate for anywhere from an hour to overnight. 

- When you're ready to bake, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

- For the topping, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Using a fork, work the butter into the flour mixture, until it is coarse and crumbly.

- Remove the soaking bread from the refrigerator, uncover, and top with the crumb mixture. 

- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the custard in the bottom has set and the tops of the bread have started to toast. 

- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Scoop into bowls and top with powdered sugar or syrup.

This really is heavenly. The bottom turns into a kind of custard-y bread pudding. The part sticking out turns into buttery, cinnamon-y toast. It really would be great for breakfast or brunch. Especially since you can do everything the night before and just throw it in the oven in the morning. But... it was just as good for supper!

If you don't do the whole soy milk thing, the original recipe calls for 1 C. of whole milk and 1/2 C. of buttermilk instead of the soy milk and lemon juice. I've just been on a soy milk kick lately. I'm starting to like it better than cow's milk, so it's all I have on hand and I'm trying to substitute it in recipes. 

Enjoy!