Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Speaking of Pancakes...

It seems there is a trend here: Pancakes.  My last several recipe entries have all been pancakes so let's continue, shall we?  We like pancakes here at our house.  We eat them semi-regular.  I like them because they are a blank canvas on which to express my culinary creativity.  Greek Yogurt is not just the trendy ingredient du jour, but a regular staple in our house.  We buy cases of the fat free plain greek yogurt at a time.  (Yeah, I could make my own, but that sounds like a lot of work.  Especially when there is Costco.)  I have taken to using plain greek yogurt anywhere I would use sour cream, even in baking.  

Combining Greek Yogurt and Pancakes seems pretty natural.  Here are a couple things to keep in mind.  
Use any greek yogurt you want.  Flavored, plain, et cetera.  I used blueberry flavored once and added fresh blueberries for blueberry pancakes.  The cakes turned out a rather unappealing purple grey color.  So, be careful the color yogurt you use.  Made with vanilla yogurt, the blueberry pancakes were just fine.  Also, because these have little flour and all that protein rich yogurt, the texture of these pancakes is very different.  They are kind of spongy.  They will soak up more syrup for sure, so don't get carried away.  Finally, they cook different.  your batter is thick so it wont pour into the skillet.  You scoop it into the pan then kind of press them out.  They will still fluff up when cooking.

I hope you see these as your own blank canvas and get creative with your pancakes.  Blueberry!  Vanilla Hazelnut!  Carrot Cake! (I'll share that recipe later.)

Here I made strawberry banana pancakes with additional yogurt topping.  I love the way bananas get caramelized in pancakes.  The strawberries I like served on top.

Ingredients
6 oz. Greek Yogurt (give or take.  Approx 1 single serve container or about 1/2 cup.  I used vanilla this time)
1 egg
1/2 cup flour (of your choice)
1 tsp baking soda
Fruit or other add-in
** If you use plain yogurt, the cakes will be tart.  I recommend adding a little sugar to your batter to compensate.**

Directions
Mix together your yogurt and the egg until smooth.  Add Flour and Baking Soda.  Mix just until combined.  DO NOT add your fruit.  This applies to any pancake.  Always wait until it is in the pan.  You don't want to bruise or damage the fruit.
Prepare your skillet by preheating and adding a little butter to the pan.  Set your burner at medium-high.  Scoop about 1/4 cup batter mixture into the pan.  Lightly press the batter with the scoop to make it more pancake shaped.  NOW add your fruit (bananas in this case) as the cakes cook on the first side.  After a couple minutes (you'll notice the cake has puffed up around your fruit) when the pancake has set and the edges are starting to brown, flip the cakes and cook another couple minutes.  I cook these lower and slower to make sure they are cooked through.  When browned on the other side, remove from pan, top with additional fruit and enjoy!  I also made a little yogurt topping (instead of whipped topping.)

See my yummy strawberries and delicate dollops?

Yogurt topping:  Everything is to taste so no set measurements here.
Plain Yogurt (1/3 cup)
Vanilla (1 tsp)
Sugar (1/2 - 1 tablespoon)

Mix and use as topping on your pancakes. You could also mix in maple syrup if you wanted.
I liked the yogurt topping.  B liked it more.

B's generous portion of yogurt topping with strawberries and maple syrup

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

In reading pancake recipes I've come across the mention of cake flour several times.  Not being a baker type person, I had no idea what cake flour was or why I might want to use it in my pancakes.  Apparently cake flour is a lower gluten flour used to make a more crumbly cake.  It also has a lower protein content and is finely milled.  Well, I'm not going to go to the trouble to buy extra kinds of flour, but I can see that flour with a finer texture might make fluffier pancakes.  I ended up taking an in-between step and adding a special ingredient- corn starch.  I think it added to the fluffiness, but further experimentation is necessary.

Anyway, since it is hot, hot summertime, it seems the perfect time to make warm pumpkin pancakes, right?  B has been on my case to use some of the cans of pumpkin puree we had in the cupboard which I had stockpiled when they were on sale.  So.  Pumpkin pancakes.  These turned out pretty delicious and I will make them again for sure.

This recipe makes a hearty breakfast for two but can easily be doubled.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup AP flour
• 2 Tbl. Corn Starch
• 1 Tbl. Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbl. Sugar
• Pumpkin Pie Spice (1/8 - 1/4 tsp, depending on how heavily spiced you like it)
• 1 cup Pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla (running over!)
• Cream Cheese (2 or more tablespoons)
• Maple Syrup

Directions

I know you're supposed to sift all your dry ingredients together, then seperately mix your wet ingredients together, then combine the two.  I don't.  This is pancakes, not rocket science.  I just want to eat a yummy breakfast not stand around all day stirring things.  So...

Dump all the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir it around for a couple seconds.  Add all the remaining ingredients (except the cream cheese and maple syrup) to the same bowl.  Stir until combined, but don't overmix.  Let the batter rest while you do other stuff like make your icing and get your cooking skillet out and so on.

Cooking pancakes.  No time for more pictures, just time to make and eat.

When your pan is heated (medium high heat,) melt a little butter in the bottom to coat (so your pancakes don't stick and they taste nice and buttery.)  Slowly add batter to the pan in the size pancakes you desire.  Cook until bubbles have burst then flip the pancakes over.  They will have been mostly cooked through on the first side, so they will just take a minute on the second side.  Keep warm until all pancakes are cooked.  Serve and top with this killer Cream Cheese Maple Icing.

To make the icing:

Start with 2 tablespoons cream cheese in a microwave safe dish.  Heat for about 20-30 seconds.  Stir.  Cream cheese should be very smooth.  If not, heat a few seconds longer and stir again.  If your cream cheese isn't smooth when you add the syrup, you'll have weird lumps.  Okay, once it is smooth and stirs easily, add some maple syrup.  About 1 tablespoon maybe.  Stir it in until well combined.  Taste it.  Does it taste super yummy?  Then you're done.  Maybe you think it should be more syrupy.  Then go ahead and add some more syrup until it is the scrumptious pancake topping of your dreams.  Enjoy!

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.