Pancake Passion

First off, a disclaimer. Say you wake up on a Sunday morning to go wakeboarding, and you come back home and you're ravenous but you really want pancakes. Don't make these blueberry-ricotta pancakes. Make something less fluffy that won't require you to beat egg whites until your arms fall off.

That said, if your arms are in perfect working condition, or you have a KitchenAid or some other contraption that will do the work for you, then this recipe for blueberry ricotta pancakes is awesome and fluffier than a puppy. The fresh zing of the orange zest cuts through the sour of cooked blueberries beautifully.

First off, ingredients to make the six mini pancakes pictured at top, enough for two:


150g ricotta cheese
2 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
orange or lemon zest to taste (I used half an orange, but a quarter is probably better)
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/4 cup plain flour
1 handful blueberries



Mix the ricotta, sugar, egg yolks and orange or lemon zest to make a paste, then add the melted butter. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix. Now here comes the fun part -- beat those egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the mixing bowl. The more air you retain in the mixture, the fluffier your pancakes will be. Throw in as many blueberries as you want (raspberries, chocolate chips or bananas would probably do just as well) and then you're ready to go!

Brush your frying pan or griddle with butter and then spoon in your pancake batter. Keep the heat at medium so your pancakes don't burn. The dough will rise a bit and bubble, and you'll see the edges of the circle pucker and begin to lift off the surface of the pan. When you can scoop the entire pancake off the pan with a flat spatula, flip it and leave for another 10 or 20 seconds.

Viola! Your pancakes are done.