Cream cheese pancakes with fruit salad

Last week Rachael, aka FujiMama, tweeted that it was a pancake week, which made me think of a recipe for Mascarpone Pancakes that I've made last year. Those pancakes were fluffy, slightly sweet, and super easy to make.

I usually don't make pancakes from scratch: a boxed mix with a few additions does the trick for me, but those Mascarpone pancakes were definitely worth the time it took to measure a few ingredients. I decided to recreate the recipe, but use cream cheese instead: less expensive, more affordable, and whatever was left could easily be spread on a bagel.

But first, instead of a syrup to pour on top of the pancakes, I decided to make a fruit salad from champagne mangoes, watermelon and grapes. Special thanks to Stacey Viera for taking me to Food Star grocery store on Friday where I bought these mangoes and also a bunch of Latin food. {Look out for a post about Puerto Rican Lasagna on Wednesday.}

And now time to make the pancakes!

Cream Cheese Pancakes
Printable Recipe 

{Note: this is something new I'm trying: you will now be able to print recipes on Mango & Tomato. Huge thanks to Food Bloggers Unite & Closet Cooking}

Ingredients (enough for 2 people)
1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk
3/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
1. In a bowl whip the cream cheese with a hand blender. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk and blend together. Using a hand blender really helps to get rid off as many lumps as possible.

2. Sift together flour, sugar and baking powder and add to the wet ingredients. Incorporate well. Let the mixture sit for at least 5 minutes.
3. Heat a bit of canola oil in a cast iron skillet and using a rounded tablespoon pour the pancakes mixture into the skillet. Brown for a few minutes on each side.
4. Serve with the fruit salad.

These weren't nearly as luxurious as the Mascarpone pancakes, but they were still fluffy and delicious. The recipe made about 10 pancakes: you can share them with someone or refrigerate and reheat them the next day. Of course they aren't going to taste as good as when you've just made them.

What's your favorite pacake recipe? What do you like to add to yours? Whipped cream? Syrup? Jam? Chocolate syrup?

Here are a few other pancakes recipes to try:
Pancakes with peaches and chocolate chips
POM & Cherry pancakes
and if you are in the mood for something savory, Broccoli pancakes