When you think of pancakes, only one place comes to mind:
Baja Café.
Just the mention of the popular Tucson breakfast spot will conjure up thoughts of a giant pancake with the perfect crispy top and a fluffy, buttery inside that melts in your mouth, followed by decadent pops of cinnamon and a silky cream cheese glaze.
Whether it’s snickerdoodle, cinnamon roll or lemon blueberry, Baja Café’s pancakes always leave customers in awe.
Now imagine if you could have those next-level pancakes at home?
(Yes, that means you can have snickerdoodle pancakes all the time!!)
Baja Café owner Gerard Meurer has been selling its plain boxed pancake mix for a while now, but customers wanted the unique flavors, like snickerdoodle and cinnamon roll. So, he began experimenting with dehydrated ingredients.
“I was trying to find a shelf-stable glaze, and then I discovered that they make dehydrated cream cheese, they make dehydrated milk and things like that,” Meurer said. “So I started experimenting and I made a vanilla bean cream cheese glaze that just needs water, which is pretty cool.”
This experimentation also led him to create the brown sugar swirls for the cinnamon roll pancakes and the lemon curd for blueberry lemon pancakes, giving him the idea to add these flavors to his boxed mix lineup.
Baja Cafe’s Snickerdoodle pancake is topped with cinnamon, sugar and a cream cheese vanilla glaze.
For $16, you’ll get a box that makes eight pancakes along with all the ingredients you need to make the pancakes as well as the toppings.
Now you may be thinking, “but I can’t copy Meurer’s pancake technique at home, how does he get it crispy AND fluffy?????”
Don’t worry! Each box comes with a QR code you can scan, directing you to a video that shows Meurer giving you step-by-step instructions so you get that nice, caramelized top on every pancake.
“I sent some kits home with our staff and their kids absolutely love doing it,” Meurer said. "It’s a great Sunday morning, Saturday morning activity.”
Meurer even said that those that have tried the kits say they are almost as good as the pancakes in the restaurant!
The cinnamon roll mix will be the first flavor to roll out. Meurer is hoping the packaging comes in soon so they can start selling them in-store this upcoming week.
In the future, Meurer also wants to add two new flavors to the lineup, hoping the mixes are a hit with customers that want to enjoy Baja Café in the comfort of their homes.
Sunday morning breakfast just got an upgrade, and it’s all thanks to Meurer.
Make sure to keep up with Baja Café’s Facebook page to see when the mixes drop!
