Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
11January 2, 2013 by Meg G.
Happy New Year, Supper Clubbers! Here’s to a year full of good food, great conversation, and building community!
Forgive the continued Christmas musings, but I’m still catching up on some posts and this recipe is too good to overlook. This year, Heather and I got to spend Christmas morning together in our own home for the first time. Leading up to the holidays, we talked about how excited we were to create some of our own holiday traditions. Naturally, those traditions centered around food. So, on Christmas morning, we spent two leisurely hours in the kitchen, still in pajamas, sipping on coffee and snacking on Christmas cookies, cooking up a storm. The menu? Lemon ricotta pancakes topped with apples, a side of roasted breakfast potatoes, veggie sausage, and freshly squeezed orange-pear-ginger juice. Yum!
Apparently I have been talking about lemon ricotta pancakes since Heather and I met about four years ago, but had never made them for her. The last time I made them was Easter brunch circa 2007 in New Orleans.
Easter, 2007. Forgive me, Stace, for this photo of you enjoying your Bloody Mary!
In my head, these are reserved for special occasions, since they require one additional step of separating the eggs and whipping the egg whites. Well, folks, don’t let that stop you! They are SO very worth the minimal extra time and deserve to be enjoyed more than once every five years. Here goes!
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Sautéed Apples – from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen
For the Apples:
- 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1.5 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- fresh lemon juice to taste
- In a large heavy skillet sauté the apples in the butter over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until they are softened.
- Sprinkle them with the sugar and the cinnamon, and cook them over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until they are tender.
- Stir in the lemon juice and keep the mixture warm.
For the Pancakes:
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1 1/3 cups ricotta
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- Melted butter for brushing the griddle
- In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks, the ricotta, the sugar, and the zest.
- Add the flour, and stir the mixture until it is just combined.
- Beat the egg whites and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer until they hold stiff peaks.
- Whisk about one fourth of them into the ricotta mixture, and fold in the remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
- Heat a griddle over medium-low, until it is hot enough to make drops of water scatter over its surface. Brush it with some of the melted butter.
- Working in batches, pour the batter onto the griddle by 1/4-cup measures and cook the pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, brushing the griddle with some of the melted butter as necessary.
Meanwhile, Heather was whipping up our orange-pear-ginger juice. This was more like a smoothie than juice, but the flavors were delicious!
Just squeeze a few oranges (we used 3) and then blend with some pear (we used 1 – peeled, cored, and chopped) and the ginger.
Add some potatoes and veggie sausage and you’ve got a feast!
Enjoy!
Small World Supper Club 
That was a good day. I miss you friend, Happy Mardi Gras.
A GREAT day. (After the longest Easter Vigil liturgy on the history of the planet.) Happy Mardi Gras to you, too!!
Oh wow! Now you’re talking! Love lemon and apple desert-y type things (I’m that outlier who always goes for the lemon, apple or berry deserts instead of the chocolate.) And when you can have both together…And for BREAKFAST???!!! Sunday can’t come soon enough! I think I’m going to pop a bottle of Gloria Ferrer bubbly with it and get mega-festive! Cheers!
Sounds like this dish was made for you! : ) If you love apple-y desserts, you might want to hop over to my apple cake post from Thursday. Cheers to a festive Sunday brunch!
Delicious! I made them this morning but adapted them to be gluten free. Used 1/2 cup of Bob’s Red Mill all purpose flour and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum. Everything else stayed the same. Thanks for the brunch inspiration 🙂
Thanks for letting us know your GF adaptation, Sarah! (I’m assuming you meant Bob’s GF flour.) So glad you had success!
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YuM! Jonathan bought me the Smitten Cookbook for Christmas…have made 5 recipes already and will make all again! Must now make these two now!!! btw…love grandpa’s glass heather! is that an original or a find! 😉 Happy New Year to you both!!! xo
Ginger – we’d love to hear some of your favorites from the SK cookbook. The glasses were a great find at a yard sale in Providence – they were wrapped in newspaper from the 1960’s!
Ha! Grandpa Fagundes had those same ones…maybe Grandma still does! 🙂 We really all liked the frittata….we even used turkey bacon and didn’t hurt the texture etc…it is what i always feel like frittatas SHOULD taste like but never do! The kids called it pizza, which just as long as they eat it and are happy i’m good! We made the ‘potato skins’ for a New Years Day treat! YUM! again turkey bacon no lack in taste! Blueberry Cornbread…hmmm…ran out of cornmeal so added polenta (w/out grinding) not quite right but there was not a bit left that night! Oatmeal…YUM i had a few nibbles and in my yogurt parfait this morning and it was so good, but didn’t get a bowl with milk but sure the next round i will! (i had to hide it yesterday so i could have some today!!! and just made it Monday? must make double batch next time!) I can’t wait to try the salads and mini meatloaves…but also craving the frittata and potato skins already!!!
Awesome! Love that these were in the family at one point! 🙂