Bobby Flay is a Genius

Carrot Cake Pancakes with a Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle - Allston, MA


     I love chocolate. I love cake. I love chocolate cake. But if I was given the choice to eat either chocolate cake or carrot cake, I'd eat the carrot cake. It's just so delicious. So as soon as Jimmy told me about Bobby Flay's carrot cake pancakes, I knew I had to make them. And I did less than 48 hours later. I was pumped. This was going to be good. Now this recipe is rather complex, so be cautious.


Pancakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons pure cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I combined cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup packed finely grated peeled carrots, patted dry on paper towels (about 3 medium carrots)
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest, optional
• 1 tablespoon finely diced candied ginger (I didn't use this)
• 1/2 cup raisins (I used this instead of the ginger)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans or walnuts, optional, plus more for garnish
• Cooking spray or melted butter

Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle ( I cut this part in half and still had leftovers)

• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup grade B pure maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons butter

For the pancakes,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/raisins 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.

     It was a little scary at first. The batter was thick and heavy and I thought for sure they would take forever to cook. But it really wasn't that bad. Regardless, these pancakes were fabulous! It was interesting to me because with so many ingredients, I thought for sure that the flavors would mix and you would lose some. However, you really could taste all of the spices and other ingredients in each bite. It was awesome! And with the cream cheese maple drizzle (MMM) I didn't use any other syrup. It was sweet and creamy and looked pretty atop a stack of pancakes. I think I made the mistake of putting the cream cheese/maple syrup/ butter mix in the fridge while we waited for the pancakes to finish cooking. When I pulled it out, it was a little more solid than it should've been. So I would suggest keeping out the cream cheese drizzle so that you can actually drizzle it rather than putting a cold blob on the pancakes and hope it melts a little. Either way, I could eat a whole tub of cream cheese in one sitting, so I really liked this addition to the dish. This "meal" definitely seemed more like a dessert, so I wouldn't recommend eating more sweets for the rest of the day. But if could wake up to carrot cake (in cake or pancake form) every morning, I'd be the happiest early riser ever.