It is bitter cold outside with negative temperatures for the past few weeks. Generally, I don’t mind the cold weather; on the contrary, I favor it, especially the snow, but lately, I have been craving some sunshine and warmth. These sourdough lemon ricotta pancakes topped with fresh garden citrus fruit will do the trick.
We have a sort of unspoken tradition in our family to make pancakes on the weekend, usually on Sunday. Lately, we have been making these sourdough lemon ricotta pancakes. They are amazingly airy, soft, and very fragrant from the Meyer lemons. They smell amazing, especially when in the process of cooking. The whole kitchen is adorned with lemony perfume.
To enhance the citrusy flavor even further, the pancakes are served with fresh garden citrus fruit. This year has been a pretty good year for our citrus trees in the greenhouse. There are quite a lot of Meyer lemons, kumquats, and oranges.
For tips on how to make the most fluffy pancakes, please see my post on the blueberry sweet corn pancakes.
Sourdough lemon ricotta pancakes
Equipment & Tools
- Kitchen scale
- Non-stick pan
- Flipping spatula
- Mixing bowls 3x; medium
INGREDIENTS
Wet ingredients
- 250 g ricotta (high quality)
- 200 g buttermilk
- 115 g sourdough starter (discard sourdough (Note 3))
- 25 g maple syrup (organic)
- 1 egg (yolk & whites separated)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (pure)
- 80 g milk (whole)
- 1 lemon (zest and juice; Meyer; Note 1)
- 40 g butter (unslated, melted and cooled)
Dry ingredients
- 165 g pastry flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- pinch salt (kosher)
Serving
- lemon (Meyer, thinly sliced)
- clementines (thinly sliced)
- kumquats (thinly sliced)
- blueberries
- maple syrup
INSTRUCTIONS
- Gater all the ingredients.
Making the pancakes
- Separate the egg by placing the yolk and whites into separate mixing bowls.
- Add all the other wet ingredients to the bowl with the egg yolk. Mix with the whisk until there are no lumps and the batter is smooth. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a clean mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Whish the egg whites to soft peaks.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients by whisking until there are no lumps in the batter. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Scoop the batter using an ice-cream scoop or a small ladle onto the hot pan. Cook on first side for about 1.5 minutes or until small bubbles start to pop in the middle of the pancake. Flip the pancake and cook for another 45 seconds (Note 2).
Serving
- Arrange thinly sliced citrus fruits over the pancakes, sprinkle some blueberries over, and drizzle some maple syrup.
- Serve while still hot.
NOTES
- Meyer lemon is used in this recipe due to its fragrance, lower acidity level, and more sweetness. If you can not find Meyer lemons, be sure to taste the lemons before and it they are really sour perhaps add only half to the recipe. The pancakes should have a nice lemony fragrance, which should in no way be overwhelming.
- Check the structure of the 1st pancake in the middle by gently tearing it in half. If it is not properly cooked then adjust the above mentioned times to your stove.
- This recipe uses sourdough discard, i.e. the sourdough starter which is leftover after each sourdough feeding. Add any leftover sourdough starter to a glass jar and place in the fridge. This sourdough starter can then be used, straight from the fridge, in recipes like this one.
