Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle

Generally, I don’t think of the second day of spring as a pancake day, but when I got up this morning and it was 25 degrees outside, pancakes sounded pretty good.  I found this recipe on the Chef’s Catalogue website some time ago and had printed it for a future breakfast.  Since Easter is fast approaching and these are filled with that favorite of all bunnies, carrots, it seemed like a good day to give them a try.  They are a bit labor intensive, so if you plan to serve these the first thing in the morning, be sure to get your dry ingredients assembled, and make your maple drizzle the night before.  Regarding the maple drizzle, I didn’t find it all that drizzly, so I’d add a bit of milk to make it flow more readily.

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle

For the pancakes:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

½ t. baking soda

½ t. fine sea salt

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups buttermilk

3 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

½ t. pure vanilla extract

1 cup packed finely grated peeled carrots, patted dry on paper towels (about 3 medium carrots)

1 t. finely grated orange zest

1 T. finely diced candied ginger

¼ cup finely diced, toasted pecans

Cooking spray or melted butter

For the Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle

8 oz. cream cheese

½ cup grade B pure maple syrup

4 T. butter

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spices, baking soda and sea salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the carrots and orange zest, if using, and mix until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold in the ginger and pecans, if using, and mix until just combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours.

Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Coat the skillet with cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Spoon 1/4 cup mounds of the batter onto the skillet, spreading with a spatula. Cook until the tops are covered with bubbles and the edges look cooked, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip the pancakes over and cook until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 1 minute. Repeat with the remaining batter. Keep the cooked pancakes warm in the oven on a baking sheet, if desired.

For the maple-cream cheese drizzle:
Combine the cream cheese, maple syrup and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment until combined, about 2 minutes.

To serve:
Stack the pancakes on a plate and drizzle with the maple-cream cheese drizzle. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts or pecans, if using.

This post is linked to:

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday