Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

Red Velvet Pancakes - made January 21, 2012 from Allrecipes.com

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Did you blink and realize it's almost the end of January?  I love the start of a new year but it seems like I barely have time to savor it before we're actually well into the year itself.  January is almost over and I could start blogging about snacks for Super Bowl parties but since my beloved 49ers lost in the NFC Championship Game against the Giants, well, meh, I'm skipping that.  Let's just go right into Valentine's Day (although I reserve the right to change my mind later and possibly come up with some kind of snack-y Super Bowl-y dessert idea once the bitter sting has passed.  Which could be next week or in August for pre-season, haha).

If you're noticing the dates on when I've made stuff and when I've blogged about them, you'll see I'm going a little out of order.  Normally I post the stuff as I make it, depending on the time I have to bake and blog, which isn't always on the same day.  I've been going out of order lately to try and time to the different days of remembrance, lamingtons for Australia Day, chocolate cake for National Chocolate Cake Day, homemade Snickers for National Peanut Butter Day, etc.  I've held off blogging about this recipe to get us a little closer to Valentine's Day in case anyone is planning some kind of Valentine's Day-themed brunch or something.

I pretty much love red velvet anything.  Yeah, all that red dye #7 probably isn't good for me but it's not like I have it every week.  I try to keep it for special occasions.  You know, like Tuesdays.  I did go through an alarming amount of red food coloring during my holiday baking spree but that was for Christmas.  Now I've got to break out at least one red velvet item for Valentine's Day.  I've done red velvet cake, 2 different kinds of red velvet cookies and even red velvet brownies.  So why not Red Velvet Pancakes?  I had buttermilk to use up (I always seem to have buttermilk to use up) and whenever I have a particular ingredient to use or want a recipe for a particular food I want to make, I always check allrecipes.com.  That's where this recipe comes from.  I flipped through other red velvet pancake recipes from the blogs I follow and a few looked really promising but at the time, I didn't have all the required ingredients on hand.  I did for this one so it won by default.

I like the concept of these pancakes, with the cream cheese glaze as the "syrup" for them.  They turned out well although I don't know that I would consider them true red velvet.  I didn't get much of a chocolate undertone in them so they almost seemed like red-dyed pancakes rather than red velvet. There wasn't any baking soda in this recipe which means the acidity of the buttermilk wasn't neutralized so you can taste that tang.  Overall they were good but I think I would still keep looking for a "true" red velvet pancake recipe.

Cream Cheese Glaze
1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, or as needed

Red Velvet Pancakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Prepare the cream cheese glaze by beating the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Thin with 1 tablespoon milk or as needed to achieve a pourable consistency. Set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt together in a bowl until evenly blended; set aside. Beat the eggs in a separate mixing bowl until smooth. Whisk in 1/4 cup milk with the buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, vinegar, and food coloring. Stir in the flour mixture until moistened. Drizzle in the melted butter, and stir until the butter has incorporated and small lumps of flour remain.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter. Drizzle with the cream cheese glaze to serve.