Carrot Cake Pancakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Filling & Pecan Praline Maple Butter

Well here's another recipe of "dessert for breakfast". I really need to stop. But, we had all the ingredients, so why not? Well these pancakes are really like carrot cake. They are thick & dense, yet still light and fluffy. And they are studded with grated carrots and flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger (all the carrot cake essentials). The pancakes are then layered with a toasted coconut cream cheese filling and then covered in a pecan praline maple butter. I really need to break this habit of making such a decadent breakfasts because then I have to work out for the rest of the day to get back to even, haha. Oh well, they were delicious and totally worth it, I promise! Enjoy :)

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Toasted Coconut Cream Cheese Filling 

Here Comes the Pecan Praline Maple Butter Waterfall :)

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Filling & Pecan Praline Maple Butter

For the Carrot Cake Pancakes:

1C AP Flour

1C Whole Wheat Flour

2t Baking Powder

2t Cinnamon

¼t Nutmeg

½t Ground Ginger

¼t Salt

2T Sugar

¼C Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs, Separated

2C Buttermilk

2t Vanilla

4T Butter, Melted (plus more for cooking)

2C Grated Carrots

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

1 8oz Block of Cream Cheese, Softened

¼C Butter, Softened

½C Powdered Sugar

½t Vanilla 

½C Toasted Coconut

Pecan Praline Sauce:

½C Maple Syrup

4T Butter

¼C Chopped Pecans

 

Directions:

1. To Make the Pecan Praline Sauce: Heat the maple syrup in a small pot over medium-high heat, bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Add 1T of butter at a time, whisking constantly, making sure each tablespoon is thoroughly mixed through before adding the next. Keep warm while you make your pancakes. Add in the pecans before serving and just heat them through.
2. To Make the Cream Cheese Filling: In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, syrup, and nuts and beat until fluffy. Set this aside until ready to spread in between the pancakes.
3. To Make the Pancakes: Preheat a griddle over medium heat. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the egg yolks, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter, and whisk to combine. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet mixture into the center of the well, and lightly whisk with a fork to combine (there will sill be some lumps). Next, fold in the shredded carrot. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, and then lightly fold these into the batter. The batter should have small to medium lumps. Using a ½C measure, pour the patter in to pools on the heated griddle. When the pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2-3 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on the bottom, about 1 minutes. While you finish cooking the other pancakes, keep the finished pancakes warm in the oven (around 250 degrees) until serving.
4. To Assemble the Pancakes: Stack one warm carrot cake pancake on the plate and spread a heaping dollop of toasted coconut cream cheese filling on to the pancake and smooth out evenly, and repeat this process with as many pancakes as you want. Serve with the Pecan Praline Maple Butter. 

Check out Sweets for a Saturday for this recipe, as well as many others!!