Brown Butter Cinnamon Rum Pancakes

Tomorrow morning I’m heading to Blue Star Donuts to meet my coworker for donuts and coffee. I’ve been buttering him up all week hoping he will buy! Because I’m having donuts for breakfast tomorrow, today is the only day I have to eat my usual weekend pancakes. I usually eat pancakes both Saturday and Sunday.

This recipe is based on one I found on the internet. It reminds me of a cross between cinnamon rolls and pancakes – though I think the sauce could use a lot more cinnamon in it!

pancake ingredients.

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk
1 egg
3 T. melted butter, cooled

brown butter sauce ingredients.

1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 T. flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. rum extract
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Brown the butter. In a medium saucepan melt the butter. Stir and watch as it gets foamy and then starts to turn brown.
While the butter is browning make the pancake batter. In a large bowl, combine together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Whisk in the egg, milk, and cooled melted butter until just combined. Set it aside and continue making the sauce.
When the butter turns into a dark honey color and smells nutty, quickly stir in the sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually add the water. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add in the extracts and cinnamon.
Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-low heat and spray with cooking spray. Drop 1/4 cups of the batter on the griddle. Drizzle about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the sauce on top of the pancakes in a swirl pattern. (I poured it on using a measuring glass.) Let the pancakes cook for 2 to 3 minutes until bubbles appear on the top of the pancakes and the underside is golden brown. Flip the pancakes and let them cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer. Be careful because the brown butter sauce can burn easily. You don’t want to leave the pancake on too long.
Serve immediately with butter and top with the rest of the sauce. If the sauce is too thick to use as a syrup, whisk in a bit of water to thin it.

This is a bit of a difficult recipe. When flipping my pancakes so the cinnamon swirl side was cooking, it seemed like the sauce started to ‘burn’ almost immediately. (Incidentally, I used a rum emulsion instead of an extract. An emulsion is supposed to be comparable to an extract but it was a lot thicker.) I also had a tough time getting the pancakes out of the pan as the swirl wanted to stick to the bottom of the pan.

That being said, I really enjoyed the taste. The swirl side of the pancakes were a bit crispy, which lends a different type of texture to a pancake. And, as I said above, these are basically a cross between cinnamon rolls and pancakes. The original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon. I used at least 1/4 a teaspoon, if not more. But I found myself wishing there had been a heavier cinnamon flavor.

Try this at home and let me know what you think!