Special Pancakes

I mentioned in a previous post that my little Jack's 3rd birthday was last Sunday. In honor of him and his precious memory, we invited my in-laws over for brunch. I wanted something special so I made wild blueberry and ricotta pancakes, along with scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh fruit salad sprinkled with sugar in the raw, coffee and orange juice. We had a leisurely brunch-- just the 4 of us and Autumn under the table chewing up used napkins :-)

I thought these pancakes were really good and fluffy. The first couple batches were really good then the egg whites separated a bit and the batter got a little watery. Also as the frozen berries thawed it made the batter a grayish tone. Next time I'd try these with fresh berries rather than frozen. A little orange or lemon zest might be nice too.

This recipe also makes quite a bit of pancakes. I got about 25 4-inch pancakes. My FIL loved them and had about 6 pancakes plus all the fixin's. They were a great texture and flavor and sweet enough that they didn't really need syrup, but we added it anyway. A little sweetened berries made them even better. Make these pancakes for your someone special, I'm sure they'll love them.

Wild Blueberry & Ricotta Pancakes from Fine Cooking

• 3 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta, drained of excess liquid before measuring
• 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 5 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp. table salt
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries (don’t thaw)
• Vegetable oil for the griddle

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and ricotta. Whisk in the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, and salt.

In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, and baking soda with a spatula. Fold into the egg yolk mixture until just combined.

Beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until they hold firm peaks. Fold gently into the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Lightly oil a griddle and set it over medium heat. The griddle is ready when water droplets dance briefly on the surface before disappearing. Ladle a scant 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the griddle. Cook until the undersides are nicely browned, the edges look set, and small bubbles appear on the surface, about 3 minutes (see note). Flip and cook until the second sides are golden brown, about 3 minutes more. Repeat, re-oiling the griddle between batches, until all the batter is cooked.

NOTE: On medium high heat, these pancakes were browning up quickly but the middle was still uncooked. So I turned the heat down and they cooked slower and more uniform.

The egg whites in the last bit of the batter separated a bit causing it to be a little watery so I added a couple more tablespoons of extra flour to thicken it up.

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