If you’re looking to become more of a morning person, trust me, with these vegan cinnamon roll pancakes you’ll be jumping out of your bed to start the day. They’re sweet, surprisingly easy, and pretty impressive looking! And the best part? You get to have a whole stack! They have the flavor of a cinnamon roll combined with the soft, pillowy texture of a pancake…I mean, what more could you want?!
There’s three parts to these pancakes: the base, the swirl, and the frosting. For the base, you can use pretty much any plain pancake recipe! I’ll list my favorite one below, but feel free to use your go-to.
The swirl is composed of just a few simple ingredients that you probably have laying around: vegan butter, cinnamon, and sugar. And lastly the frosting is a simple powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond milk mixture.
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WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE
Simple Ingredients – These cinnamon roll pancakes contain common ingredients you probably already have on hand!
Easy to Make – With only a few minutes of prep time and a few minutes for cooking, these vegan cinnamon roll pancakes will be ready within 20 minutes.
Perfect Weekend Breakfast – This is the perfect weekend breakfast to switch it up from your normal go-to! It’s fancy enough for guests, but easy enough to whip up in minutes.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (WITH SUBSTITUTIONS)
To make these vegan cinnamon roll pancakes you will need the following ingredients:
For the Pancakes
- All-purpose flour – You can replace with a 1:1 GF sub, but otherwise I would stick with all-purpose flour for these pancakes.
- Baking powder
- Non-dairy milk – Any non-dairy milk works!
- Apple cider vinegar – You can sub the same amount of lemon juice. The reaction between the milk and the vinegar (or lemon juice) helps create a vegan buttermilk.
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
For the Cinnamon Swirl
- Vegan butter
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
For the Icing
- Powdered Sugar – If you don’t have powdered sugar, you can skip the icing and use maple syrup.
- Vanilla
- Non-dairy milk – Any non-dairy milk works!
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES
Step 1: Combine together the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Step 2: Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and sugar).
Step 3: Pour in the wet ingredients and gently mix together, being careful to not overmix!
Step 4: Mix together the softened vegan butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar and transfer to a pastry or ziploc bag. Set aside
Step 5: Heat a pancake griddle over medium high heat and grease with oil or butter.
Step 6: Add 3-4 tbsp of batter onto the griddle and pipe a swirl of the cinnamon sugar batter on top in a circular motion. Once bubbles appear (after about 3-4 minutes) flip, let cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, and repeat.
Step 7: Combine together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and non-dairy milk. Pour over the pancakes and serve! If making ahead, wait to pour over icing until serving.
STORAGE & REHEATING
These pancakes can be refrigerated for 3-4 days, to reheat simply pop in the microwave.
To freeze pancakes, let cool completely. Then, place in the freezer in a single layer for 30 minutes or until frozen. Transfer to a freezer safe container or bag and keep frozen up to 2 months.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I just swirl the cinnamon sugar mixture into the batter?
Sure! If you don’t have a bag, simply swirl it into the batter – it will taste the same!
Why is my cinnamon sugar mixture melting and not staying in shape?
To get the perfect cinnamon swirl, pipe the cinnamon mixture onto the pancake after adding the batter (careful not to go too close to the edge). If you notice it’s melting/running off the pancake, it could be for a few reasons:
- The mixture is too thin – to thicken it place it in the fridge for a few minutes. You don’t want the butter to be melted, just softened.
- The pan is too hot – If medium high is too hot and the mixture is melting, turn it down to medium low.
- You’re flipping too early – Make sure you wait a few minutes until bubbles have formed.
Why are my pancakes sticking to the griddle?
Make sure your pancakes don’t stick to the griddle by adding oil or butter to the pan before making your pancakes. If needed, keep adding a bit of oil between each pancake to prevent sticking.
OTHER SWEET BREAKFAST RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
If you decide to try these out, let me know! I love seeing your recreations tagged on Instagram @nourishedwithnatalie.
Vegan Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Ingredients
Pancake Recipe
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp non-dairy milk
- 1 ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ tbsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
Cinnamon Swirl Recipe
- 2 tbsp softened vegan butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Icing Recipe
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla
- ½ tbsp non-dairy milk
Instructions
- Combine the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar
- Add the dry and wet ingredients together, being careful not to overmix
- Heat a pancake griddle over medium heat and lightly grease with oil or butter
- While the griddle heats up, mix together the butter, cinnamon, and sugar and transfer to a pastry or ziploc bag
- Pour 3-4 tbsp of batter onto the griddle and while it cooks pipe out a swirl with the cinnamon sugar mixture, once the batter starts to bubble, flip and cook until golden brown, repeat until you have used all the batter
- For the frosting, mix together all ingredients, and then serve with the pancakes.
Made for my mom for mother’s day and she loved them! And so did I!
Aww how sweet, so glad she enjoyed! Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day with your mom 🙂
Made them for brunch with my friends (who aren’t vegan) and everyone loved them!
They turned out delicious! Super easy and filling.
Yay! Glad to hear you enjoyed them 🙂
The pancakes were tasty, but the cinnamon swirl would melt before I even flipped them and then burn once they were flipped, so none of the pancakes had the characteristic swirl 🙁 I ended up using the cinnamon mix as more of a “filling” and covering it with pancake batter and that worked out fine. The icing was simple and good, and the pancake batter itself was easy to make!
Hi Caroline! Thanks for trying out the recipe 🙂 That can happen if the griddle is too hot or if the butter has softened too much. I’ll add more specific instructions so if you decide to try again, it should work!