Leftovers turned into pancakes

To open, I would to suggest I blog I came across this weekend called Joy the Baker. Not only do her recipes look great (I'm trying one out this weekend for a bridal shower), but her humor and personal honesty make her blog a really great read. Check it out. Now on to the food.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Saturday I made an eggplant parmesan recipe I'd been wanting to try (image and recipe to come later) and was left with leftover ricotta. Last time I made a lasagna recipe, I also ended up with leftover ricotta and not having anything to do with it, had to throw it out after a few days. So, I wanted to find someway to utilize it this time. That is when I stumbled - or googled - across this pancake recipe.

To be honest, I was searching for a pancake recipe because the previous unsuccessful attempt to use the leftover ricotta showed me a plethora of pancake recipes using ricotta. Unfortunely at the time, I didn't really have a great pantry with the ingredients that I have now come to use all the time so it wouldn't have been very beneficial to buy all the stuff just to make the pancakes. This time however I had everything on hand (for some reason I'm very proud of this fact :-).



Sunday morning, I google searched for recipes and came across this: Meyer Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. I contemplated adding berries directly into the batter, but never having tasted these pancakes before, I wanted to try them once with their original taste. I had a bag of mixed berries in the freezer that I just decided to put on top instead. Frozen berries is the way to go with this recipe. I partially defrosted them in the microwave, then after all the pancakes were done, I
thrw them into the skill and let them get completely defrost and warm. Some of the juice from the berries melted into the cup/pan in both parts of the defrosting process and the berries + juice were great on top of pancakes! Surprisingly, I found the strawberries and raspberries were the best compliment to the pancakes. I expected it to be the blueberries.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons sugar

1 pinch kosher salt

Finely grated zest of 1 large Meyer lemon

1 cup homemade ricotta (store-bought works fine)

1/2 cup flour

Jam and/or maple syrup, for serving

Preparation:1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, salt, lemon zest, ricotta, and flour.
2. In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed or a whisk, beat the egg whites to medium-stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture.
3. Heat 2 non-stick or well-seasoned frying pans over medium heat. Add a bit of butter to the pans, enough to coat the bottom.
4. Dollop heaping tablespoonfuls of the pancake batter into the pans, leaving a bit of space in between each pancake. You should be able to fit 3 or 4 pancakes into each pan, depending upon how large your pan is.
5. Cook for about 1 minute, until the bottom is golden brown. Carefully flip the pancake to brown the other side, and cook until the pancake is cooked throughout, another minute or so.
6. Serve at once on warm plates with jam or maple syrup.

Notes:
I added a tsp of baking powder because I like my pancakes kinda fluffy. I honestly think from the picture on their blog that they did too and forgot to put it in the ingredient list.

DO NOT use a whisk to beat the egg whites unless you have wrists of steel. I have up after a while and just went with what I had because my wrists were too tired. Definitely use a mixer.

I had less than 1 cup ricotta left but I went with it anyway. Before adding the baking powder, I made one pancake and it was very crepelike and very good. I have a feeling -and it's something I will probably try out later- than the lemon ricotta crepe concoction + nutella + warm berries would be amazing.