Light and fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes drizzled with raspberry syrup. The ricotta adds a rich, fluffy texture and combined with the beaten egg whites makes pancakes that are light as air.
My sweet friend Tiffany, Food Finery, invited me to her house to make homemade ricotta cheese and pasta. My husband gave me a pasta attachment for my KitchenAid mixer
and we broke it in by making linguine. My daughter wanted to have Linguine and Clam Sauce for dinner, so I decided to use the ricotta cheese the next morning in pancakes.
I searched for a great ricotta pancake recipe, and the recipe on the William Sonoma website got rave reviews. I altered the recipe by blending the ricotta with the other liquid ingredients in the blender so it was nice and smooth. I increased the ingredients so the recipe would make enough pancakes to feed my crowd. The original recipe called for cake flour and I made my own cake flour by combining corn starch with the flour.
Although there are several steps and plenty of dishes required to make these pancakes, all the steps are easy and I loved these pancakes. The bright lemon flavor and light fluffy texture is a perfect match for the sweet/tart raspberry syrup. It’s like adding a little sunshine to your morning.
We had a few left over that I ate the next morning for breakfast and they reheated very well and were still light and fluffy.
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour*
- ¼ cup cornstarch*
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt divided
- 1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 5 eggs separated
- ½ cup sugar
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat griddle to 325º. (This is a thick batter and needs to cook at a slightly lower heat, because they brown up quickly.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and cornstarch until well combine; whisk in baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and continue beating until soft peaks form.
- In blender jar add the ricotta, milk, egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice and pulse until smooth. Add to flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the pancake batter.
- Spray the griddle with nonstick cooking spray. Ladle ⅓ cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on top and the pancakes are golden underneath, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook for 1 minute more. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Notes
Note: We used the Epicurious ricotta recipe and had to add twice as much vinegar to get it to form a curd. If you’re were using it in a savory dish (Tiff used her’s in a brown butter pasta sauce) you’ll want to add 3-4 teaspoons of salt. I didn’t add any salt to the ricotta I used in the pancakes.
More breakfast recipes you might like:
Cornmeal Lemon Ricotta Waffles with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote, Barbara Bakes
Bananas Foster Coconut Pancakes, Barbara Bakes
Healthy Whole Grain Waffles, Our Best Bites
Orange Pancakes with Berry-Orange Sauce, Iowa Girl Eats
Chocolate Pancakes With Strawberry Syrup, Sweet Basil
Carmen
Best pancakes I have tried in a long time!! Procedure is somewhat messy, but the outcome is definitely worth it. I did strawberry sauce and butter pecan syrup instead of the raspberry sauce.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Carmen – glad you enjoyed them. I’ve been meaning to make the again soon. My family would especially love the butter pecan syrup.
Jessica
Really good, made with changes since we are eating a very low cal diet – 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup oats, 1/4 cup sugar not 1/2, and a very low fat ricotta. Made into 24 pancakes and they were 85 kcal each. I scarfed them, granted I had just come back from a run but they were delicious
Darlene
Yum! Made them this morning. I added blueberries–so good!
The lady
This is such a lovely recipe. if I don’t have cornstarch can I use maize flour
Barbara Schieving
As I understand it, maize flour has a coarser grind more similar to what we would call cornmeal and would not be a good substitute in this recipe. Cornstarch is very fine and helps to lighten the pancakes. I believe Cornflour is what we would call cornstarch. Thanks for the question.
Janna
Could those look (or sound) any more perfect?? I will be trying these for sure!
Paula @ Vintage Kitchen
You give new meaning to the word fluffy. Absolutely gorgeous pancakes Barbara, and with ricotta which is an ingredient I love to use in the kitchen!
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles
I had lemon ricotta pancakes at a restaurant a few years ago, and vowed to make them at home. But I haven’t yet. Yours look beautiful – I need to try them!
Jess
Barbara – these look incredible – so totally light and that topping looks perfect. I love the combination of ricotta and lemon, but never would have thought of them in pancakes. Definitely looks like a worthwhile weekend project!
Deeba Rajpal (@vindee)
Gorgeous! Craving some ow GF! xoxo
My Inner Chick
Simply DeeeeLISH! X
Linda M
My sons do not like lemon flavor. But I am intrigued about the ricotta. I think I may try these with blueberries. And definitely for dinner. If I am going to do all that separating and whipping, it will be for a dinner. Looking forward to it. Especially with Lent coming on. Pancakes for dinner anyone?
Barbara Schieving
I love pancakes for dinner. Blueberries sound like a great addition.
Jamie
Gorgeous! Wow! I am so making these! I love the ricotta and lemon combo and these are stunning! (but I will not make my own ricotta!)