Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Tender fluffy pancakes with a swirl of cinnamon, pecans, banana, and sugar — these Cinnamon Roll Pancakes are the perfect cross between cinnamon rolls, banana bread, and pancakes! Drizzled with cream cheese icing and caramel sauce, this is a five-star breakfast right at your fingertips!

This cinnamon roll pancakes recipe will forever ruin plain pancakes for you! Tender fluffy airy pancakes with a swirl of cinnamon, pecans, banana, and sugar. Forget the syrup and drizzle Cream Cheese Icing with Homemade Caramel Sauce and INDULGE! 

They’re so good they were actually featured on People Magazine! Like Seriously this GOOD!!

You may remember these YUMMY baklava pancakes with Maple syrup? They were fluffy, tender, pillowy, cakey perfection?

That’s my favorite texture for a pancake and I always use this “base recipe” for this ultimate pancake texture and then I find myself playing around with flavors, toppings, swirls–you name it!

Not only do I love that texture, but I also love that pancake-y taste of that base recipe. So it’s not “chalky” tasting like some pancakes I’ve had, it’s not salty, it’s not too sweet, and it’s not eggy tasting either (yes indeed, I DID have all these sorts of pancakes! Ughh!)

For the record, I can’t claim I grew up on fluffy pancakes. I grew up in Paris, home of delicate French crepes. My mom made them as often as every weekend and sometimes weekday evenings. And when we went out-we would still buy the fresh crepes on the streets of Paris, slathered with jam or Nutella.

Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE French crepes, but I just missed out on fluffy stacks of pancakes! And I definitely missed out on something like these banana cinnamon roll pancakes!!

Cinnamon Rolls Pancake Recipe

So here are a few things to know about this amazing cinnamon roll pancakes recipe.

• If you’ve had some cinnamon rolls pancakes before you’ll know they’re swirled and studded with a butter sugar-cinnamon mixture, which is a good thing no denying!

• I add the banana for flavor although it’s classically made using cinnamon sugar and butter only. The banana binds the mixture beautifully and makes me use less sugar in the swirl. So the cinnamon swirl in this pancakes recipe has no butter (yes NONE) and just a tablespoon of sugar because it has mashed bananas as a natural sweetener.

• It’s got plenty of cinnamon for a boost of flavor and tiny pieces of ground pecans for a slight crunch and nutty taste. Now that’s quite optional but oh so good! Any nuts will be perfect here, by the way, hazelnuts would top my list.

• When you want cinnamon rolls for breakfast but don’t have three hours of extra time to make them from scratch, make these delicious cinnamon roll pancakes instead!

How to Make Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Making these pancakes isn’t super hard, it just looks fancy and impresses your breakfast guests. Or serve them for supper. Equally delicious any time of day!

Pancake Batter Ingredients

• All-purpose Flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Egg
• Vanilla Extract
• Buttermilk or Yogurt
• Oil or Melted Butter
• Sugar

Make Pancake Recipe

Use a separate bowl for the dry ingredients and another bowl for the wet ingredients. then mix them both together using a whisk to make the pancake batter.

Cinnamon Swirl Ingredients

• Very Ripe Banana mashed or pureed (no chunks).
• Confectioner Sugar. Also known as powdered sugar or Icing sugar.
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Finely Crushed Pecans. Any nuts or almond flour will work.

Make the Cinnamon Swirl

So banana swirl cinnamon roll pancakes in a snap: you’ll puree a banana, add to it a bit of sugar, plenty of cinnamon, and crushed pecans.  Then you’ll place this in a Ziploc bag and make the pancake batter in a different bowl.

Spray your preheated non-stick skillet with cooking spray. Then you’ll drop a 1/4 cup of pancake batter into your skillet using a measuring cup.

Snip the corner off the Ziploc bag, and swirl the banana mixture on top of the pancake starting at the center and moving out (it doesn’t have to be perfect!).

Don’t go too close to the edge, leave a margin around the outside. Cook the pancake for a few seconds until the pancake doesn’t jiggle, and it has bubbles starting. Then flip the pancake to cook on the other side.. and before long your Cinnamon Roll Pancakes are done.

Easy breezy DELICIOUS cinnamon roll pancakes all ready to be dressed up! I love a bit of cream cheese glaze and a touch of homemade caramel sauce on top. Some more crunchy pecans and a fork, please!

Serve the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

You gotta live it up–start with cream cheese icing… And..

A drizzle of Homemade Caramel Sauce!! OMG simply DIVINE! These beat up any pancake recipe and beat up your cinnamon rolls any day!!!!

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

• Don’t snip a large tip off the ziplock bag. Start small and test it on a plate to make sure it makes a good stream of about the size of a cooked linguine pasta.
• Also when making the swirl make sure to leave at least half inch border around the edges of the pancakes without swirling because it may leak and burn and make a bit of a mess.
• Start swirling only after the pancakes have been cooking for a few seconds.
• Do not be rushed to flip your pancakes after they’re swirled. Wait for a few seconds. I always shake the skillet a bit until I feel the pancakes and banana swirl mixture doesn’t jiggle anymore or melt into each other..that’s when I flip.
• Some folks recommend using squeeze bottles for the cinnamon swirl. I find these to be such a pain, and the zipper baggy does the trick.
• The banana I used here was instead of butter as most recipes do. It prevents the cinnamon sugar form leaking to the skillet after flipping the pancake. The banana makes the swirl actually stick on to the pancake!
• Don’t have the ingredients you need? A fluffy pancake mix will do the trick in a pinch.
• I love reheating pancake the next day in a toaster as you would do with toast bread.
• While I serve the pancakes with cream cheese icing and this homemade caramel sauce, You can use syrup or honey.
  
  

VARIATIONS FOR CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES

If you are not a fan of bananas, you could use pumpkin puree or applesauce. I’ve made this also with butter, vanilla, sugar, and cocoa powder and I loved it, while the girls liked this banana version the most! So I strongly recommend you give it a shot and then play around with as many variations as your heart desires!

I add the banana for flavor although it’s classically made using cinnamon sugar and butter only. The banana binds the mixture beautifully and makes me use less sugar in the swirl.

Mostly, the banana sticks to the pancake batter. However using butter-sugar-cinnamon only will have the butter melt onto the pan (when the pancake is flipped). 

You might prefer brown sugar and cinnamon for the swirl.

Easy Baking Recipes

Cinnamon Roll lovers! Make sure to check out my cinnamon rolls muffins recipe, a quick convenient way of making a divine cinnamon roll, or these pumpkin cinnamon rolls!

Also enjoy Apple Cinnamon Muffins or Pumpkin Donuts With Cinnamon Sugar.

5 from 9 votes

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Banana Swirl Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Tender fluffy pancakes with a swirl of cinnamon, pecans, banana and sugar — these Cinnamon Roll Pancakes are the perfect cross between cinnamon rolls, banana bread and pancakes! Drizzled with cream cheese icing and caramel sauce, this is a five star breakfast right at your fingertips!

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American

Keyword cinnamon roll pancake recipe, cinnamon roll pancakes, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls recipe, easy pancake recipe, how to make pancakes, pancake recipe, pancakes

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes

Total Time 18 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 164 kcal

Author Mahy

Ingredients

For the batter

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup buttermilk (or yogurt)
• 2 tablespoons oil (or melted butter)
• 2 tablespoons sugar

For the swirl

• 1 large very ripe banana mashed or pureed (no chunks)
• 1 tablespoon confectioner sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons finely crushed pecans (any nuts or almond flour)

To assemble

• Cream cheese icing
• Homemade caramel sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat an electric griddle to medium-low and spray (or swab) it with a thin layer of baking oil. Alternatively, preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat low heat and spray or swab a thin layer of oil on it.

2. Make the pancake batter: In a large bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk them until all well combined. In another bigger bowl, add all the wet mixture ingredients and whisk them well. Add the flour mix into the wet mixture and using a spatula or even a wooden spoon, mix the pancake batter well until no more flour mixture is visible but the batter is still lumpy.

   

3. In a small bowl, combine all the banana swirl ingredients and mix them well.

   

4. Transform the swirl into a Ziploc bag and seal it. the snip off a tiny bit at the corner

   
5. Take your ¼ cup measuring cup and fill it a little over half way with the pancake batter and pour it on top of the hot griddle or skillet.
   
6. Wait for 15 seconds until the pancake starts to cook and then take your Ziploc with the banana mixture and start swirling the banana mixture starting at the center and going in concentric circles till you reach about a half an inch away from the border of the pancake. Leave at least a half inch border without swirling to avoid any mess.
7. Wait for about 20.seconds until you shake the skillet slightly and feel the pancake and swirl mixture do not jiggle anymore. Then use a spatula and flip the pancake. Cook the pancake for about 30 more seconds until cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter and swirl.
   
8. Serve the pancakes drizzled with cream cheese icing and caramel sauce if desired and enjoy.
   

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

 

• Don’t snip a large tip off the ziplock bag. Start small and test it on a plate to make sure it makes a good stream of about the size of a cooked linguine pasta. Then when making the swirl make sure to leave at least half inch border around the edges of the pancakes without swirling because it may leak and burn and make a bit of a mess.
• Start swirling only after the pancakes have been cooking for a few seconds.
• Do not be rushed to flip your pancakes after they’re swirled. Wait for a few seconds. I always shake the skillet a bit until I feel the pancakes and banana swirl mixture doesn’t jiggle anymore or melt into each other..that’s when I flip.

Nutrition Facts

Banana Swirl Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Amount Per Serving (1 serving)

Calories 164 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Cholesterol 22mg7%

Sodium 106mg5%

Potassium 202mg6%

Carbohydrates 22g7%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 3g6%

Vitamin A 75IU2%

Vitamin C 1.3mg2%

Calcium 86mg9%

Iron 1.2mg7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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