Many years ago, I stayed at an old lady’s home in Melbourne for a few months. One day she made a baked noodle dish for me. The noodles looked like Fettuccine. For my big surprise, it was a dessert. The noodles were mixed with sugar, cream cheese and pineapple. I had never tasted sweet baked noodles before. The old lady told me that it was a Jewish dessert, not her weird invention. I tried a mouthful of it, and it was delicious.

Every time I make these pancakes, I think about the Jewish dessert the old lady cooked. Since I tried it, I have been loving the cream cheese and pineapple combination. These pancakes are slightly sour, and very light and fluffy, so perfect with the rich yet fruity cream cheese filling.

Makes

8 Cakes

Pancake Ingredients

Self-Raising Flour 1 cup
Caster Sugar 1/3 cup
Salt 1 pinch
Eggs 2
Butter Milk 1/2 cup *OR 1/4 cup Yoghurt & 1/4 cup Milk
Water 1/2 cup

Filling Ingredients

Canned Pineapple 440g *net weight about 300g, drained
Cream Cheese 200 to 250g *softened
Caster Sugar 2 tablespoons
Lemon Juice 1/2 to 1 tablespoon *depending on the sourness of the pineapple

Method
  1. Place Self-Rising Flour, Sugar and a pinch of Salt into a large bowl and mix. If you use Plain Flour, you need to add 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder and mix well.
  2. Add Eggs, Butter Milk and Water, and whisk well until smooth. This is quite thin and runny batter and it should be so.
  3. Make the cream cheese filling. Drain Canned Pineapple very well, cut into small pieces. Mix the pineapple pieces that are well drained, softened Cream Cheese, Sugar and Lemon Juice in a bowl.
  4. Heat a large frying pan (non-stick preferred) over a medium to low heat. Oil the pan very lightly OR you need no oil at all if you use a really non-stick pan. Lower the heat to low, cook about 1/4 cup of the pancake batter for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface and the edges get cooked. Turn and cook for 30 seconds or until cooked through.
  5. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
  6. Place the filling on each pancake and fold. Enjoy as they are at room temperature or after chilled in the fridge for a few hours.