donna's daily dish

lemon ricotta pancakes

5/1/2018

Like all good cooks, sometimes you find yourself in a rut preparing the same, easy recipes you’ve grown accustomed to. However, I did get motivated the other day. A few years ago my daughter requested lemon ricotta pancakes, which I dutiful found and prepared for her. This week I thought I would surprise her and make them again at her house. However, a search of my files turned up nothing. A search of the web didn’t turn up any recipes that I wanted to try. However, that changed when I went to the Williams-Sonoma website and located a delicious and easy recipe for their lemon ricotta pancakes. Your grocery list needs to include a fresh lemon and a 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese.

My batter didn’t get off to a good start, however. I overlooked the fact that the pancakes need both the ricotta cheese and milk. My daughter only has almond milk at her house. Three egg whites had to be beaten to soft peaks. I used her immersion blender to beat the whites, which didn’t yield the volume I needed. I had to pull out her stand mixer to complete the task.

Despite these minor setbacks, my lemon-ricotta pancakes met her approval. Although there’s a cup of whole milk ricotta cheese in the mix, the beaten egg whites, lightens the batter. I found that despite using almond milk, the pancakes turned out well. Whole milk might have made them taste richer and perhaps rise a bit more. I paired the pancakes with Whole Foods breakfast sausage ($6.99/lb.) that was savory with a touch a sage. I also purchased at Whole Foods a small container of cubed watermelon ($3.99).

The Williams-Sonoma recipe suggested topping the pancakes with raspberry sauce, a recipe is on their website. Another version of lemon ricotta pancakes had a comment whereby the writer topped her pancakes with lemon curd. This really gilds the lily and sounded decadent!

This is another terrific recipe to prepare for Mother’s Day, which is fast approaching. Imagine a brunch for Mom serving an assortment of different pancakes, a side of either breakfast sausage or sweet and spicy bacon. When I’ve had brunch I prepare Gourmet Magazine’s sweet and spicy bacon that is done in the oven and requires minimal preparation and tending.