LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES
This recipe is an old one from the New York Times. I can't find the original but was able to recreate it a few weeks ago from memory. These are sweet and don't need a lot of syrup. We usually eat with some jam. They taste great the next day, even cold.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
Half cup of all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt
Zest from two lemons (the original recipe called for one, but I did not find it lemon-y enough)
¼ cup of sugar
Wet ingredients
6 egg yolks (Keep the separated egg whites)
One stick of unsalted butter
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
One cup of whole-milk ricotta cheese
Prep
Melt the butter first on low heat, then allow to cool to room temperature
Take all your dry ingredients and whisk them together in a medium-sized bowl
Combine the wet ingredients into a larger-sized bowl, making sure the butter is at room temperature so you don't make scrambled eggs
Whisk the egg whites with an electric beater in a chilled bowl (I usually put a metal or glass bowl in the freezer for several minutes to get it nice and cold). The egg whites should form stiff peaks when you are done. It should only take a few minutes at most.
Fold all your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Take a large tablespoon of the egg whites and fold it into the combined mixture. Then, pour the rest of the egg whites in and fold them. Don't mix, as you want to retain the lightness of the beaten egg whites. The mixture should seem a bit wet and light.
Heat a griddle (works best if you use one) or a large pan, and add a pat of butter to coat the surface. Add more butter as needed while cooking to keep the griddle greased.
Make individual pancakes using three 1 tablespoon-sized scoops of the batter mixture. (I can get perfectly shaped small pancakes using this method. They are easy to flip.)
Cook the pancake until the surface starts to bubble, and then flip. Check early as needed to see if they are starting to brown.
Cook briefly on the opposite side until browned without patting the pancake.
Repeat until the batter is gone.
Serve with your favorite jam, compote, syrup, or sprinkled confectioner sugar as you prefer.
Refrigerate any leftovers. They are great the next day served cold for a quick breakfast on the go.