Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

It's almost the end of blueberry season where I live, so I wanted to squeeze this recipe in despite the fact that I posted about pancakes last week. Sorry. Pancakes are delicious. This recipe comes from The Bacon Bible, from which I formerly made a delicious sweet-savory bread pudding. But this recipe is the only one without any bacon, thrown in because they make it at their restaurant for people who aren't feeling the bacon. But my husband and I have a funny memory about $16 lemon ricotta pancakes so I always feel drawn to recipes for them.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup
(from The Bacon Bible)

1 cup maple syrup
1 cup blueberries
4 large eggs, separated
1 1/3 cups ricotta
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest, from about 2 lemons
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar

In a medium saucepan, bring the maple syrup to a boil over high heat. Add the blueberries and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep while you make the pancakes.*

In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks, ricotta, butter, and lemon zest and whisk until smooth. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and granulated sugar.

In a separate large bowl, with a clean whisk, whip the egg whites until they hold soft peaks.

Add the egg yolk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until just combined (do not overmix.) Fold in the egg whites until just incorporated.

Heat a griddle or cast-iron pan over medium heat and brush with butter or spray with nonstick spray. Working in batches, pour the batter onto the griddle by 1/4-cup measures and cook the pancakes for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, brushing the griddle with more of hte melted adidtional butter as necessary.

Serve 2-3 pancakes per person, ladled with the blueberry syrup and dusted with confectioners' sugar. 


Makes 10-12; Serves 4.

Notes from JennyBakes:

I made a different kind of blueberry syrup since I had blueberries that were close to the brink. I used 2 cups, added a little water and sweetener and lemon zest. I sometimes make a sauce like this for ice cream, where I usually add a cinnamon stick, but I didn't want it to overpower the lemon. I let it boil and simmer away while I made the pancakes.

I was trying to make the recipe lower carb, so went with brown sugar splenda and half almond flour, but really there is so little flour I wish I hadn't bothered. This made them harder to turn, although that's also partly because I'm trying to make pancakes in a skillet pan on the stove and really just need a griddle.

 
Like pancakes? I seem to make them from around the world! Check out the Finnish pannukakku, Icelandic pönnukökur, Papua New Guinean banana pancakes, the Danish ebleskiver, the Hungarian palacsintas, Austrian kaiserschmarm, the Swedish pancakes from Alaska, and what we call the German oven apple pancake. I also made ratio pancakes from Michael Ruhlman's book, which we can call American, but Rosa Parks might be giving Michael a run for his money with her "featherlite" pancakes.