A Breakfastus Miracle

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Originally uploaded by alfagee

I’m not much of a breakfast chef.  Cooking before I’ve had coffee and a chance to recover from the tough work that is sleeping just seems barbaric to me.

But, I decided to try pancakes since A) Mr. Alfa loves pancakes almost as much as he loves Chex Mix and pasta;  B) I was determined to come up with a recipe for the BSI (blogger secret ingredient) challenge that Spicey had posted about.

The recipe needed to use lemons and be submitted by midnight last night, so that didn’t give me much wiggle room.

So, breakfast it was. I had lemons;  I had ricotta; I had frozen berries. I was good to go…after I had a big cup of coffee.

These were fluffy and creamy and very light. And no one was harmed in the making of breakfast

The berry sauce is pretty and tasty, but I think I like these better with just maple syrup. So, feel free to skip the berry sauce, or make it and serve it over vanilla ice cream.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Warm Berry Sauce

Pancakes
1 cup part skim milk ricotta
1 cup skim milk
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Zest from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Berry Sauce
1 16 oz package frozen mixed berries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

In a medium saucepan set over med-high heat, add frozen berries (do not thaw), sugar and cornstarch. Stir frequently, but gently, until all berries are thawed. Once the berries have broken apart and the sauce has thickened, drop heat down as low as possible. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off sauce so it isn’t molten when you’re ready to eat it.

While the sauce is simmering, add all the pancake ingredients to a blender, and mix for 2-3 minutes until fully combined, and the batter is a little frothy. It should be thin enough to pour; if it’s not, add a little more milk.

Set a non-stick griddle over high heat, and spray with cooking spray. Test to see if it’s hot enough by dropping a bead or two of water on the surface — when the beads dance, the griddle is ready. If you’re using an electric griddle (my preference) preheat to 375.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto griddle for each pancake. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the edges look firm and bubbles appear across the surface of the pancake. Flip, and cook another 2 minutes.

Put the cooked pancakes in the oven to keep warm, and start another batch. The batter makes about 16 pancakes. Serve with a few tablespoons of the warm berry sauce, or warmed real maple syrup, not that fakey brown corn syrup stuff.