Strawberry Cheescake Pancakes

So let's talk about...cheesecake.

I just love cheesecake. I want it any day, every day. 

Scratch that! 

I need cheesecake. I adore cheesecake. 

I also adore pancakes.

Pancakes + Cheesecake= Love. 

So I have an early childhood memory. Ya know, one of those ones where you actually don't remember anything except that one clip that remains solid in the back of your mind? One of those where the picture is sort of hazed, and the sounds are muted. Yes, it's one of those. And this memory is about cheesecake. 

We were on like our one and only family vacation road trip ( it is hard to take vacations when you have a 12 person family), across country and we stopped to visit my Grandma, and it happened to be around my brother's birthday. I remember her serving cheesecake. Ew! Cheesecake?! Like cake made of actual cheese? Like that stuff wrapped in plastic served on a sandwich? No thanks! 

So there it was. I was repulsed by cheesecake from that time on. Well, that is until the moment we (by we, I mean cheesecake and I ) stumbled upon each other while dining out one afternoon. White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Sigh. To this day I still swoon. My heart skips a beat and my knees shake. See? Sometimes it is a good thing to revisit an old fling!

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

 Pancakes:

1 cup Flour

2 tbsp Sugar

1 heaping tsp Baking Powder

Dash Cinnamon

2 tbsp Canola Oil, or melted butter

1/2 cup Milk

Juice from 1/2 lemon

1 Egg

Strawberry Jam

Sliced Strawberries for  Garnish

Cheesecake Filling:

4 oz Cream Cheese

2 tbsp Powdered Sugar

1 tbsp Honey

Directions:

In a small bowl squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon. Add the 1/2 cup of milk. Allow to sit for 5 min.

Heat a skilet or small frying pan over low-medium heat. (I usually go for a 4 setting)

In a bowl of a mixer, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and honey. Beat about 2-3 min.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the oil and egg. Begin adding the the milk and stir to combine. You want the batter to be lumpy, but not too thick.

Throw some butter on the skillet. Have the cheesecake filling handy. Once butter is melted pour on some batter. Throw on 2-3 spoonfuls of cheesecake. Allow to cook until bubbles form on top. Flip the pancake. Cook for another 45 sec to 1 min. Continue with rest of batter. 

Slather with strawberry jam and diced strawberries. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, and enjoy!  I like reunions! ;)