Feeding Umi

After my last batch of pancakes, I wanted to make some lemon ricotta pancakes. I used to get these amazing little pancakes at Henry’s, on 105th st. and Broadway on the upper west side. My friend Daniel used to say, “they are like a little burst of sunshine in your mouth.” They were light, fluffy, delicious. This time, I wanted to make something comparable… and avoid making monstrously large things. ; )

I always like to make sure that I am going about this right, so I consulted the internet. I found A Good Appetite, and her recipe for homemade ricotta AND lemon ricotta pancakes. Their site is a wealth of information that I’m going to enjoy going through. Fortunately, I bought some ricotta the other day. However, in the future I really want to try making it. It doesn’t require anything special, other than a thermometer, milk, and cheese cloths.

I read through her recipe and confirmed that you just need to juice and zest a single lemon, and I figured that would work well for my purpose, too. For the rest of the recipe, I used my good ol’ handy pancake batter.

• Microwave 2-3 tablespoons of salted butter
• Separate 1 large egg and beat the whites until it foams. I like to create peaks and make sure they stay put. Beat in the yolk.
• Mix butter, 1.25 cups milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into egg mixture.
• Sift 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 teaspoons of baking powder.
• Fold liquid mixture into the flour mixture.

Into that basic mixture, I just added ricotta and blueberries, last time. (I put the blueberries on top of the mixture in the pan) This time around I eyed around a cup of ricotta cheese into the mixture (I wasn’t very precise). Then I grated the zest of the whole lemon right in. I cut the lemon into wedges and squeezed in. It was a large/medium lemon. Then voila!

The consistency was great. This time, I used a 1/4 measuring cup to measure each pancake. I used two pans and buttered the griddle and sides of each pancake. The taste was a tarter than the ones at Henry’s. It was great with maple syrup, but I can’t help think that maybe it could have used some more sugar. Of course, one thing this needed was some confectionery sugar right on top. ; ) In that case, no additional sugar needed.

Ryan loved them, though. Loved as in, not because he likes pancakes or when they are made for him, but loved as in preferred these to my regular pancakes AND the ricotta and blueberries pancakes I made last time. That was a surprise. I, personally, really liked the blueberry pancakes. Next up: Mixed Berry Pancakes. (And, of course, home made ricotta cheese, and home made mozzarella cheese.)