The Bread and Breakfast Friends, there are just so many reasons why February is a special month. Sure, it’s the month of love and all…and it has less days and all… BUT, more importantly, this month is home to National Pancake Day!! Now, as it turns out, National Pancake Day can fall on a variety of days, depending on who you listen to. Originally, National Pancake Day coincided with Shrove Tuesday, which is always the day before Ash Wednesday. Many Christians rightfully take this day to get in one of their last big feasts before a month of fasting. Historically, the holiday was said to have been celebrated by Christians needing to finish using the last of the “rich” foods they had on hand, such as eggs, sugar, and milk, before Lent. If you listen to head cheeses at iHOP however, National Pancake Day is next today, February 27th. Every year, iHOP gives away countless stacks of free pancakes to earn donations from customers. These donations will be given to local charities and children’s hospitals.
Any day you celebrate it, National Pancake Day is a magical one. To celebrate in style, I decided to pair my pancakes with something just as magical to make these guys: Cookie Butter Stuffed Applesauce Pancakes. You guys know how much I love cookie butter... if I was going to stuff my pancakes with anything…clearly it would the butter of the Gods. Before I get too excited, let’s get started!
First, we’ll start with the stuffing. Sometimes stuffing pancakes with something that is not solid can make for a messy process. To save ourselves a headache later, we’ll scoop out tablespoon amounts of cookie butter and spread them on parchment slightly to make a dollar coin sized circle. Throw these in the freezer while you make the rest of your batter.
The batter for today’s goodies is super simple. Simply mix your dry ingredients together first: flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder. I also threw in 1/4 cup (about 3-4 cookies worth) of food processed and finely crushed speculoos cookies. Since these are the cookies that cookie butter is made from, it helps to get that flavor all throughout the entire dish.
Then, in a separate bowl, mix together your milk (any kind will work), egg, vanilla, and applesauce. The applesauce is a great addition that allows you to use less granulated sugar. Instead, the sweetness in the pancakes is a bit more subtle, and allows for other flavors to shine through.
Go ahead and introduce your wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until the batter is clumpless.
To cook these pancakes, I put my skillet over medium heat and sprayed with a bit of nonstick spray. Then, once the skillet was heated, I scooped 1/4 cup of batter onto the surface, placed a frozen cookie butter coin in the middle, and then spooned on a little less than 1/4 cup of batter to cover it completely. I recommend only taking out a few coins at a time, right before you put them in the pancakes. That butter won’t stay frozen for long!
After about 3-4 minutes, I flipped and waited until the other side was finished cooking. You’ll want to be careful when flipping, as the cookie butter will have softened and may not stick exactly where you want it to while the pancake is still cooking.
We’re just about finished! You could go right ahead and eat them like this! OR, you could make the better choice and dress them up a bit! Personally, I love the taste of butterscotch with cookie butter, so I whipped up about half of this (eclair) ganache with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate. Since you’ll be drizzling it, you don’t need to wait too long for it to cool completely. I also love a bit of greek yogurt drizzled on top. The tanginess cuts the sweetness just a tad.
There you have it folks, the ultimate way to celebrate National Pancake Day…whichever day you choose to celebrate it (both if you’re like me)! Next week, we’re celebrating yet ANOTHER iconic holiday: National Peanut Butter Lovers Day. You KNOW it’s gonna be good.
Until then, stay tuned and stay hungry!
Erin
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cups finely crushed speculoos cookies (3-4 cookies)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 3/4 cup applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup cookie butter
- greek yogurt
- butterscotch ganache*
- Use a tablespoon to create small coins of cookie butter on parchment paper. These should be about the size of a dollar coin. Freeze while making batter.
- Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl - flour, crushed speculoos cookies, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, salt.
- Mix together egg, applesauce, vanilla, and milk in a separate bowl.
- Combine dry and wet ingredients - stir until the batter is lumpless.
- On a skillet over medium heat, scoop 1/4 cup of batter, and place a frozen cookie butter coin on top. Cover coin with an additional 1/4 batter.
- Cook pancakes about 3-4 minutes, until small bubbles appear on the surface. Flip carefully and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.
- Decorate and top with butterscotch ganache and drizzle of Greek yogurt.
- *reference blog for link to ganache