Lemon-ricotta blueberry pancakes

 

Spoiler alert: Wow, these are good.

I was browsing through my breakfast cookbook section this morning in search of yet another thing to do with blueberries, preferably something not too involved. I ran across a recipe for lemon ricotta pancakes, which worked for me because I've lately been on a lemon-ricotta appetizer kick and had just the right amount of ricotta on hand. I figured I'd just add blueberries and be done.

Lemon-ricotta pancakes

Adapted from “Rise & Dine: Savory Secrets from America’s Bed & Breakfast Inns” by Marcy Claman. I'm not really the target audience for actual B&Bs, but their recipes are worth making in the comfort of one's own home where one isn't possibly expected to interact with strangers before having a spot of tea. This recipe comes from the Grünberg Haus Bed and Breakfast in Waterbury, Vt. It's still operating and looks pretty funky cool in a fab location, but it has new owners so who knows if these awesome pancakes are still on the menu.

Ingredients

¾ cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Zest and juice of 1 lemon, divided

1 cup ricotta cheese

⅔ cup milk

2 eggs

1 cup or more fresh blueberries

Powdered sugar for serving, optional

Method

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and lemon zest in a large bowl. Whisk to mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk together ricotta, milk, eggs and lemon juice. Stir into dry ingredients. It will look a little runnier than most pancake batters I’ve encountered, but if you let it sit while you heat up the griddle to 350 degrees, it will tighten up a bit.

Lightly grease hot griddle. Pour ⅓ cup batter onto griddle. It will spread out into a 5- to 6-inch pancake. Dot the surface of each with about 10 blueberries. Cook on one side until the batter on top is very nearly set and flip, cooking until lightly golden on the other side.

Since these spread out quite a bit, unless you have a really big griddle, it’s going to take some time to cook that many (it makes about 10). And these are thicker, softer pancakes, so be prepared to have them take longer to cook. You probably don’t want to have your temperature much above 350 or your pancakes will get too brown before they’re cooked through.

Serve topped with more blueberries and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, or butter and maple syrup.

Rating: The only thing wrong with serving these to company, other than having to make them in stages, is that it's nearly impossible to eat these without making mmm, mmm sounds. These are really freaking good, with the ricotta giving them a velvety texture, and the lemon and nutmeg giving it much more flavor than standard-issue pancakes that rely more on liberal doses of butter and maple syrup for their tastiness.

While I was interested in using up blueberries, these would I suspect be perfectly lovely without as well.

Followup: I made these again without the blueberries and substituted orange zest/juice because that's what I had on hand that needed using. That's a perfectly fine variation.