Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce

If you are not using ricotta in your pancakes, you should begin immediately. 

I love breakfast foods.  They are good any time of day.  I like a mix of sweet and savory (omelets AND French toast.)  Lately it seems though I’ve been making a lot of pancakes.  Plain pancakes, Whole Wheat Strawberry-Banana Walnut pancakes, Blueberry Pancakes… even the we-decided-to-only-make-it-once-a-year-otherwise-we-might-have-coronaries Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes with Cream Cheese Icing Drizzle.   This time, I decided I wanted something a little different.  Something light and refreshing.  Enter these fluffy, slightly tangy, light and delicious Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce.  They are super easy.

Blueberry Sauce

I made the mistake of only getting a half pint of blueberries for our pancakes and we really could have used more.  Since you are just cooking them to make a sauce, go ahead and use frozen if you need to.  Be aware that you won’t have any fresh ones for garnish if you use frozen fruit.

Ingredients

1 pint fresh blueberries

2 Tbl. Water

1-2 Tbl. Sugar

1 Tbl. Cold water

1 tsp. corn starch

Directions

Put blueberries, 2 Tbl. Water and the sugar in a saucepan.  Heat on high until sauce comes to a boil.  Meanwhile, combine 1 Tbl. Cold water and the cornstarch.  When blueberries come to a boil, reduce heat to keep them at a simmer and stir in the cornstarch mixture.  Sauce will thicken.  Reduce heat and keep warm until your pancakes are ready.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

I made a quick and easy version.  To get even lighter pancakes you can go through the whole rigmarole (Huh.  Thought it was “rigamarole” but spell check corrected me.) of whipping your egg whites and folding in other ingredients etc, but I just didn’t have time for that.  If you are not using fresh lemon juice, I must insist that you buy at least one fresh lemon to add the lemon zest.  It really is crucial to the flavor.  And yes, I did go to what I consider the extra effort of mixing my wet and dry ingredients separately before combining them.  It really does help your pancakes to not have any lumps.  Plus, I have a dishwasher so I don’t care that I dirtied an extra bowl.

Ingredients

The recipe makes about 8 pancakes this size.

1 ¼ cups All-Purpose flour

3 Tbl. Sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt (Don’t skip this.  It’s only a ¼ tsp for pete’s sake.)

1 cup ricotta cheese

¾ liquid eggs (OR 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites)

½ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest  (You can put some lemon zest in with the blueberry sauce too!)

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine the first five (dry) ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.  Add this to the dry ingredient mixture and still just until combined.  DO NOT overmix. 

Heat your non-stick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat.  It is okay you’re just doing this now.  Letting the batter rest a bit is a good thing.  It lets the baking powder and soda work their magic.  Spray the pan with cooking spray or, as I do, put a half pat of butter more or less in the pan and let it melt all over the surface.  Use a 1/3 cup measure to scoop out your batter onto the skillet.  Cook about 2 minutes until the pancake has started to set and the underside is golden brown.  Flip the pancakes and cook another 2 minutes (approximately.)  When you’re done making all the batter, top your pancakes with a little butter, a sprinkle of powdered sugar, and the blueberry sauce.  Enjoy!

I saved a few fresh berries for garnish.