Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Raspberry Preserves

Mother's Day is almost here! What is the mom in your life eating this Sunday? Breakfast at a restaurant? Brunch at home? How about breakfast in bed with these delicious little pancakes?

These quick pancakes are full of flavor. A burst of bright lemon is infused in each bite and the deep red raspberry preserves on top add extra flavor. Simple enough for a weekday breakfast but special enough to serve to guests, these fluffy pancakes are a favorite in our house.

I've even made these at work for my clients and they are always met with rave reviews and the plates are empty and tummies full. Give them a try and, as always, let me know how you liked them!


Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Raspberry Preserves
Printable Recipe
Hands-On Time: 20 minutes
Ready In: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:


Zest of 1 lemon - about 1 Tablespoon
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk or buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup red raspberry preserves, with or without seeds, whichever you prefer


Directions:

1. Combine lemon zest with sugar and rub together with your fingers until fragrant and moist. Set aside.
2. Stir together flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
3. Blend eggs, milk, ricotta and vanilla. Fold lemon and sugar to wet ingredients. Add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
4. Drop by 1/4 cupful onto a hot griddle and cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Turn and cook for 1 minute longer. Set aside and keep warm until all pancakes are cooked - there will be 12 - 14.
5. Heat preserves until smooth and liquid. Plate pancakes, 3 to a plate, and top with 1/4 cup of preserves.

*Note: For a faster version you can use 2 cups of instant pancake mix and 1 1/4 cups of water in lieu of the pancake batter.

What Do We Really Eat?

I am questioned fairly often about what a larger family eats for dinner each day. Mostly what we're eating is what I've posted either here, at A Thousand Soups, at Disney's Family.com or even at Half Hour Meals.

This week, however, I'm going to share what we're eating each day. This will be the good, the bad and the ugly - I'm sure. There is no way to have a family this size without having a snag here and there and I'm planning on sharing what our schedule is and what other extenuating circumstances, if any, there are each day.

So, are you ready? This evening for dinner I've done the very bad: Pancake Breakfast Sandwiches. I went uber easy with prepared and frozen pancakes and sausage, deli American cheese and fresh eggs.

My preference would be to make the pancakes myself from homemade and sausage myself as well, but feeling as I have been, and having wiped myself out yesterday going to the kids' first parade of the year, I'm doing simple and not-so-good-for-you.

Line up!

I don't have a real recipe for these - but it's very simple, cook one egg and one sausage patty (or a strip of bacon if you prefer) for each sandwich and layer together with a slice of cheese between two small pancakes. Serve up with hashbrowns or potato pancakes and orange juice. Easy even for 9 people, just get an assembly line going and you'll be done in no time.

Bacon in the Budget

Bacon Pancakes - recipe below

Bacon is quickly taking on a role as the new chocolate as of late and I'm on that wagon, for sure. Bacon lovers are coming 'out of the closet' with a fervor and I'm more than happy to join the ranks of newly outted pork belly fanatics whether it's PC or not.

However (come on, there has to be a 'however' here) bacon is expensive and not-so-good for a person's health. What to do? Bacon ends. I'm not talking the fat-only type, and don't let your butcher get away with handing that to you, I'm talking the kind with a good amount of meat still on them and all the flavor of the more picture-perfect slices. There are many areas where you can actually purchase boxes of bacon ends for your freezer. If you don't have that available, ask at the meat counter.

Here's the health part; it doesn't take a lot of bacon to get a good bacon flavor. Take those ends and cook them up until crisp. Drain well and crumble into bacon bits. While you're at it, save the bacon grease for other uses. Strain out the cooked bits of bacon and freeze the leftover drippings in small containers. It only takes a tablespoon or so to add flavor to soups, stews, casseroles and gravies.

This recipe is for Bacon Pancakes. In a family as large as ours, the bacon budget can get out of hand rather quickly. To have all the flavor without all the cost, try crumbling bacon right into the pancakes as they cook. Everyone in the family loves these.

Bacon Pancakes
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

1 recipe pancake batter (use whatever you really like - my favorite is still the BH&G New Cookbook basic recipe)
1/2 pound bacon cooked crisp and crumbled

Ladle pancake batter onto hot griddle in the amount desired (1/3 cup works well) and top with crumbled bacon. Flip when bubbles appear on surface of pancake and edges are dry.


You can always mix the bacon right into the batter, but I find that the bacon that rests on the bottom of the pan gets too done that way.

Other Bacon Recipes:

Bacon at Cooking with Anne
Bacon at A Thousand Soups


More on Meal Planning and Budgeting:

More on Food Budgeting
Budget Meal Planning
What's For Dinner?

P.S. Check out Cooking with Anne and Short Order Mom on Parentdish.com today!

Sunday Breakfast - Royal Foodie Joust Entry

This month's RFJ ingredients seemed to throw several of us for a loop. They are: acorn squash, sage and orange. My first attempt at a submission was truly horrid. I made a dessert acorn squash stuffed ravioli with an orange/sage relish. I actually gagged at first bite. Something about the flavors put together that way just didn't work, but I refused to give up.

This morning I made an excellent breakfast of acorn squash pancakes and chicken sausage with a maple-orange glaze. It was truly delicious!

Acorn Squash Pancakes
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each powdered ginger and cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed or pureed acorn squash
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine squash, eggs, and vanilla and blend well. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Add flour mixture to squash mixture alternately with milk until a loose batter forms. Drop by 1/4 cup onto a hot griddle and cook until bubbles form on the top and the edges are dry. Flip over and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Chicken Sausage with Maple-Orange Glaze
Printable Recipe

1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all and blend well. Form into small balls or patties and fry until golden. Add the juice of one orange, 1/2 teaspoon orange zest and 1/3 cup maple syrup. Simmer for several minutes and make sure all sausages are coated well.

Sunday Breakfast

My famous Pumpkin Pancakes and sausage patties. No problem waking the kids for this one.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/4 c flour
3 T  brown sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t grated nutmeg
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c milk
1 c canned pumpkin
4 large eggs-separated
1/2 stick butter-melted
1 t vanilla extract

2 c maple syrup
1/2 c chopped walnuts
2 T butter


Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, stir together milk, pumpkin, egg yolks, milk, 1/2 stick butter and vanilla until well blended. Add wet ingredients to dry in 2 parts until smooth--don't over beat.
Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into pancake mixture. Drop by 1/4 to 1/3 cup onto a hot griddle or non-stick pan. Cook until edges are dry and centers are bubbly, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes until springy in the center.
Continue until all batter is used. Keep pancakes that are already done in a very low oven (about 200 degrees F) covered with a lightly dampened tea towel.

Combine syrup, butter and walnuts in a heavy saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes until hot. Serve over pancakes.

Breakfast this Morning

Only in this household would you be lucky enough to get something better if we ran out of the normal foods we have on hand for breakfast. Such was the case today-bread mysteriously gone-milk level a little iffy for 8 bowls of cereal-no Pop Tarts (gasp!). I did have bananas, eggs and enough milk to whip up these. Not enough for the same tomorrow though *sigh*.


Banana Walnut Pancakes with Maple Cream
Printable Recipe

4 medium bananas, mashed well or blended
1 t vanilla
2 large eggs
1 T oil
1 c milk + extra
2 c flour
2 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 c chopped walnuts

Combine bananas, vanilla, eggs and oil in a blender and
blend on low until well combined-a few seconds should do.
Add 1 c milk to banana mixture and blend again
just until combined. In a large bowl stir together flour,
sugar and baking powder.
Add banana mixture to flour mixture
and stir well. Add more milk if necessary-try
to get this as close to a regular pancake batter in
consistency as possible-but not too thin.
Add walnuts and fold in.

Cook over medium heat as you would regular
pancakes-look for bubbles and dry edges before turning.

Maple Cream:

1 c heavy cream
1 t maple flavoring
2 T powdered sugar

Combine all 3 ingredients and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy.
Serve with pancakes.