Monday, May 23, 2011

Breakfast Yesterday....Ricottta & Blueberry Pancakes

Ricotta & Blueberry Pancakes

I'm not really a breakfast person or even a brunch person.  Maybe it's because I like to sleep in and by the time I wake up and get dressed, it's lunch time;o)  Every so often, we do go out for brunch and found a great restaurant near us called BLD (it stands for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner).  They serve the best Ricotta & Blueberry Pancakes!  This was the first time I had ricotta in pancakes and loved it!  

I got some freshly made ricotta over the weekend, so I decided I wanted to try to make these pancakes.  The problem was that I am TERRIBLE at making pancakes!!  I thought I can go the easy route and buy Bisquick and somehow incorporate the ricotta into it.  Wrong!  I was actually able to find Neal Fraser's (owner of BLD) recipe on the internet and after reading it decided I needed to make it from scratch because I needed to put whipped egg whites in it.  I don't think chefs share their true recipes because these did not turn out like the restaurant's pancakes and even the picture that was posted with the recipe looked more like the ones I ended up making.  After reading the recipe, I decided the freshly made ricotta was too nice to mix in with the pancake batter.  I also was out of baking powder and needed to go to the grocery store again anyway, so I got some of the grocery brand ricotta too.

Neal Fraser's Recipe...

Dry & Wet Ingredients

Dry:  Flour, Baking Powder & Salt
Wet:  Yolks, Milk, Ricotta, Sugar & Vanilla
Egg White

Egg Whites

I've whipped egg whites with the immersion blender before and it worked fine, but for some reason it was taking forever for it to get stiff this time.  Duh, I was using the wrong attachment!  I needed to change it to the whisk attachment...lol  It worked after that :o)

Batter with Whipped Egg White & Extra Ricotta

In the recipe you mixed in the ricotta smoothly with the batter, but I wanted little pockets of ricotta. I used the grocery store ricotta for the main batter then I added a little bit of the fresh ricotta when I folded in the egg whites. 

Finished batter, nice & fluffy...

Almost ready...

Isn't it funny how they say that you always end up throwing out the first pancake.  They aren't kidding...I guess it's because the heat needs to adjust.  After the batter cooked for a few minutes I added the blueberrys.

Yum!

It looks a little underdone, but it tasted great with a lot of maple syrup:o)  I also topped it with a little bit more of the good ricotta and blueberries.


Fresh Made Ricotta

I promised the cheese man that I would not throw out the leftovers;o)  He said it would be good on toast with a little honey or on crackers with a little bit of olive oil.  It's so good, I like to just eat it plain too!  I will be using it on pasta later...

Grocery Store Ricotta

See the difference, the fresh one has a nicer color and isn't so smooth.  This one looks like vanilla ice cream!

14 comments:

  1. Hi Kay, I don't think it looks underdone at all. If anything golden brown makes it look pretty delicious!

    Out of curiousity, what is that orange coloured drink in the black mug? A strong Bloody Mary for brekky in disguise? :) :)

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  2. Oh and Neal Fraser is also a legendary Aussie tennis player and Wimbledon champion from yesteryear :)

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  3. Chopin, thanks for for your nice comment! I think one of our colors is off on our PC because it's a blue mug and it has coffee in it...lol But if you do like Bloody Mary's my husband made the best one out of tomato water! I wrote about it in my pizza post. He used the water that drained from the tomatoes that I salted :o)

    I like the tidbit about Neal Fraser the tennis player. I kept up with the players when it was Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg era, not as old as Fraser, but still way back when...

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  4. The pancakes look great! I'd definitely like a plate of these right now =)

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  5. I was just at BLD this saturday and had those pancakes! What a wonderful recreation. That ricotta looks so yummy, I love to eat it on toast all the time. =)

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  6. I just bought some blueberries yesterday... maybe I can consider to make some of these pancakes tomorrow for the girls! :D
    Tks for sharing Kay! :)
    BTW, does the Ricotta has too strong cheesy taste? I've never try that before and my girls don't really like too cheesy taste.. :(

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  7. This is very nice and tasty recipe..I love your way of making it, beautiful presentation, like from the magazine..just fantastic!!

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  8. Ohhh honestly I never spend that much time making pancakes... this looks like a gourmet pancake! Wait I forgot, my husband is the one who always makes pancakes for us, not me. LOL. I might request that he should whip eggs. =P

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  9. Peggy, thank you :o)

    Lindsey, thank you too :o) Did you know at BLD you can order just one pancake if you want. They are so huge, so that's what I usually do.

    Lyn, sorry for my late reply. Ricotta has a very mild taste, it sort of tastes like a cross between cream cheese and yogurt to me;o)

    Sandra, you always say the nicest things!!

    Nami, lucky girl, that your hubby makes the pancakes for you! Yeah, have him try whipping the eggs next time.

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  10. Hi Kay, no worries at all :)
    Tks for that! Maybe I'll try buying a small one to let the girls try out first... :)

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  11. yummy recipes...
    very great photography.....
    I'm happy follower of ur blog nw...
    do visit my space when ever time permits

    DeepthiDigvijay
    Good Food Recipes
    Coffe With Me Deepthi

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  12. These look light fluffy and delicious - I love how original and oriental your blog is :D
    Fantastic!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru
    Latest: Fudgy No Bake Fridge Biscuits

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