I don't eat big breakfast very much anymore. A couple times a year I catch one when I'm home visiting the family and every once in a great while, Chris and I will go out for a gluttonous breakfast at our local diner. But by and large, my big breakfast days are a thing of the past- a happy, delicious memory. Once every couple of weeks, though, we indulge in a "little breakfast", which is essentially some carby, buttery deliciousness that normally wouldn't fly in this house as a respectable breakfast (a respectable breakfast being one with nutritional value that doesn't make you immediately feel full and lazy).
RICOTTA PANCAKES
Cook Time: 5-10 minutes
Yields: 6 pancakes (2-3 servings)
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 scant tsp salt
1/2 cup ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup sugar (granulated or brown)
1 TBS melted butter (+ some for the pan and to top)
2 eggs (separated)
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix together your dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together your ricotta, milk, sugar, melted butter and egg yolks, reserving the whites in a large bowl . Using a whisk attachment on your mixer, whip the eggs whites until they are glossy and can form stiff peaks. You can whisk them by hand, but be prepared for a serious forearm work-out. Get a pan heating over medium-high or a griddle onto 375. Lightly whisk together your liquid mix (NOT THE EGG WHITES) and your dry mix. Generally, you want to avoid over-mixing any batter, especially where baking powder is involved- so don't fret about a few lumps. Gently transfer the egg whites to the bowl- you just fluffed them full of air and maintaining that air is critical to getting a light, fluffy pancake. Using a spatula, gently fold your egg whites into the batter until there are more streaks of egg white visible. If you aren't familiar with this process, it's worth watching a quick video tutorial, like this one I found on youtube.
When your batter is good to go, get a little butter or oil in your pan and use a paper towel to sop up the excess and coat the pan evenly- this will allow for more even browning. Use about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. About 3 minutes in, the top side of the batter get should get nice and bubbly, indicating that the pancakes are ready to be flipped. Once flipped, they should only need a minute or so more. As soon as they come off the heat, top them with just a tad more butter (I'm not talking diner-style here, a thin sliver will do). Repeat with the rest of the batter.