April 27, 2011

Orange Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce.


I don't have a picture of the final product because, um, well, we ate it too quickly. These were so, so good.

Sometimes my favorite recipes come out of necessity - I will have a certain ingredient in my refrigerator or pantry that I used for one recipe, but it isn't something that I use in my everyday cooking, so I go searching.

In this case it was ricotta cheese, that I used to make a lime tart for Easter. I have pasta recipes that use ricotta, but I wasn't in a pasta mood yesterday. So I hunted. I remember seeing recipes for lemon ricotta pancakes and thought that sounded like a good place to start. So I Googled around and found one from Two Peas and Their Pod with a blueberry sauce that looked great.

However, I had a bunch of oranges from my in-laws' tree and fresh strawberries that needed to be used, too. So I improvised and made a couple changes. And now this will be a recipe we make over & over again, for breakfasts on the weekend or breakfast-for-dinner, like we had last night.

Orange Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

For the sauce:
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
2 C fresh strawberries
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp water
Splash (3 Tbsp or so) fresh orange juice.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the strawberries, sugar, water, and orange juice. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir in lemon juice and cornstarch mixture. Stir until the sauce thickens slightly. Cover to keep warm and set aside.

For the pancakes:
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C ricotta cheese
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1/2 C fresh orange juice
2 tsp grated orange zest
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp milk

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese, egg, egg whites, orange juice, orange zest, canola oil, & milk. Gently fold this mixture into the dry ingredients until flour disappears. Don’t over mix; the batter will be quite thick.

Heat a griddle or a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Drop about 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot griddle or skillet. Cook the pancakes until browned on the underside and beginning to set, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the pancakes on the other side, about two minutes longer. Continue making pancakes until batter is gone. Serve warm with strawberry sauce.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

shut your mouth with these pancakes. They sound soooo good!

Carol said...

Nice way to use the oranges, great sub! I know the ricotta pancakes are amazing with lemon, so orange has to be delicious!

Catherine Fishback said...

Mmmm.... that sounds so, so good!

Nadia said...

I love your cute little blog - I didnt even know you were doing it until I saw it on Michelle's blog. BTW this looks amazing!!