Ricotta Silver Dollar Pancakes

The hus and I have been in a "food rut" lately. So I went through some of my cookbooks to get a little inspiration on some new meals. I'm one of those people that sometimes buys a pretty looking cookbook and then rarely, if ever, opens it (for shame!). This recipe is in The Newlywed Cookbook. I got a copy of this for myself as well as for my sister as a wedding gift. The texture of these pancakes is AMAZING, and it is well worth the extra effort they take (like separating the eggs and folding in whites!) but that's the stuff we do for the ones we love, right?

To make these yourself you will need:

1 1/3 c. flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp sugar

zest of one lemon
2 c. buttermilk*
1/2 c whole milk ricotta cheese
2 eggs, separated

cast iron skillet
Butter for greasing skillet

*If you don't have buttermilk on hand, add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar to regular milk and let it sit a couple minutes. This will add the acidity the recipe requires to activate your leavening agents.

Start by mixing all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and setting them aside. Then mix together all of your wet ingredients in another bowl (except for the egg whites). Add the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and mix together, set aside while you beat your egg whites to stiff peaks in a third bowl (so many bowls!).

Then, gently fold in the egg whites to the rest of your batter and you will get a nice light fluffy batter.

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium heat and butter the bottom once heated. Pour batter into the pan; I use a 1/4 cup measure to pour my batter for these silver dollar style pancakes, but you could make these any size you want. You can also use a pancake griddle if you like, but I love breaking out my cast iron at every opportunity.

These cook about 1-2 minutes on each side. Once poured, you will know it's time to flip when tiny bubbles form on the top of the batter. The second side is done once the sides of your pancake appear dry and you can see a little golden brown color around the bottom edges.

Serve these scrumptious little pancake bites with fruit, syrup, whipped cream or any other topping your heart desires. They are light and fluffy but have a tiny bit of crispiness from the cornmeal. I think these are a new favorite with us!

Do you have any recipes I should try? Leave me a link or recipe in the comments (moderation is enabled, comments will not appear until approved).

Valentine Breakfast: French Toast

Here is another great Valentine's Breakfast idea: heart shaped French Toast. A heart shaped cookie cutter helps make these easy to do for anyone, even the kids can help.

To make this yummy French Toast you will need:

Bread of choice (I used French Bread)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon milk
1 pinch cinnamon
heart shaped cookie cutter

Start by making your coating. Mix your eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Next, cut your hearts out of your bread. Dip each piece and place onto a hot skillet to cook, flip to cook both sides. Each side usually takes around a minute for me on a medium heat. Plate and top with whatever you like: fresh fruit, syrup, jam, powdered sugar, etc.

To avoid waste, sometimes I use the outer parts of my bread as french toast as well, put jam on my hearts and place them back inside like so:

If French Toast isn't quite your style, you can also use a cookie cutter to make yourself some biscuits, cut out bread for sandwiches, etc.

Valentine Breakfast: Scones

I'm bringing some extra food crafts this weekend in honor of Valentine's Day. I'll start off with this easy scone recipe. It makes some super yummy, tender scones and you can substitute in berries, dried fruits and more to make any flavor you like. Also, while a lot of scone recipes call for cutting in cold butter, these use melted butter and make a spoonable batter. Easy for you, yummy for the ones you love :)

To make these super yummy scones you will need:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional--I really love cinnamon with chocolate)
1 pinch salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, you can use any chocolate fruit etc you like)
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 cup heavy cream

extra cinnamon and sugar to top (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pour in chocolate chips and toss around to coat them with the flour mixture (this will help keep them suspended in your scones).

Make a small well in the middle of your flour and pour in your cream and melted butter. Stir until all ingredients come together, batter will resemble a very thick pancake batter.

Using a large dough scoop or spoon, scoop scones onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar mixture if desired. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on top. Makes 10-12 scones.

Enjoy!

Friday Food Craft: Blueberry Muffins

I LOVE fresh blueberries. They are a weakness of mine. So you can imagine my delight when I saw that in the dead of Winter, my grocery store had some good looking ones on super sale for my enjoyment! I may have bought several pounds... ok, I did. What better way to enjoy them than in some amazingly tasty muffins? You will note that I use cinnamon in both the streusel topping and the muffins themselves. I think that blueberries and cinnamon are a combination created by the gods themselves, if you disagree you can certainly omit it from the actual muffins, but it would make your topping fall a little flat.

To make these at home you will need:


For the Muffins:

1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
¾ cups Sugar
½ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
⅓ cups Vegetable Oil
1 whole Egg
⅓ cups Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup Blueberries

For the Streusel Topping:

½ cups Sugar
⅓ cups Flour
¼ cups Butter
1-½ teaspoon Cinnamon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners (I always go with the liners to ensure my muffins come out of the pan easily).

To make the muffins, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 2 cup measuring cup; add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix this together and add to the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. *This makes a very thick batter that bakes up surprisingly light, you've been warned. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and sprinkle with streusel topping mixture.

To make streusel topping: Mix together sugar, cup flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with a fork to cut in the butter (a pastry cutter or food processor may also be used), and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Friday Food Craft: Perfect Pancakes

Food craft time again, and as I am trying to turn over a new leaf, it isn't dessert this time! Though, you could certainly add chocolate chips and make these pancakes more like dessert if you really wanted to, I won't judge. My husband actually makes these pancakes, aren't I lucky? We went all out this year for the holidays and put them into cookie cutters to make little gingerbread and mitten shapes, but they taste just as good without the trouble. If you do want to make cookie cutter pancakes, just make sure to use metal cutters so you don't melt them, and spray the cutters generously with cooking spray so you can get your shapes out in tact :)



To make these super yummy pancakes you will need:

1 cup All Purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk (you can use either regular milk or buttermilk, depending on your taste)
1 egg
2 Tablespoons fat of choice (we generally use melted butter, but have also tried coconut oil, canola oil, flax oil, etc. anything will do)

*Serves two hungry adults, double or triple recipe as needed.


Start by mixing all of your dry ingredients together in a bowl, so everything is mixed together. Set aside.

In separate bowl, mix all of your wet ingredients together, you will want all of these to be close in temperature (so you don't cook your egg with hot melted butter, or make your hot butter chunk up in cold milk, etc.).

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Allow this to sit at room temp while you heat your griddle to medium heat, about 5 minutes.

Pour batter onto a greased griddle and cook until bubbles form all over the top of your pancakes, flip and cook until desired brownness is achieved.

Enjoy with toppings of your choice: butter, syrup, fresh fruit, etc.

Note: These also make fantastic blueberry pancakes, just add fresh blueberries (frozen also work, but the entire pancake typically turns blue, and fresh just taste so much better, so sadly I only have them in the Summer)

Friday Food Craft: Matt's Banana Breakfast Shakes

Hey everybody! Welcome back for another Friday food craft. This week, I am sharing my husband's recipe for a super yummy breakfast shake. There are only 3 ingredients and it's ready in about a minute! I will also tell you, that aside from breakfast, it makes a great shake any time of day.

You will need:

A blender
1 cup milk
1/2 large banana, frozen
2 heaping scoops vanilla protein powder*


Place your protein powder and milk in your blender and pulse together for a few seconds with your blender covered tightly (we don't want to make any messes). Then, break up your half banana into 2 or three pieces, add it to the mix and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour into your favorite drinking glass and enjoy.

*The hus is a personal trainer, if you do not need additional protein in your diet, you can substitute additional frozen fruit, or a vanilla breakfast shake powder like Carnation instant breakfast to give you more vitamins in your shake. The vanilla does make it taste a little extra yummy, so if you just go with more fruit, I might add a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

When freezing my bananas, I peel them first and place them in a freezer bag, then place them in the freezer at least overnight before use to make sure they are completely frozen.



We have also done variations of this where a handful of fresh blueberries were added, it's extra yummy and delicious, so feel free to add your favorite additional fruit either fresh or frozen. The banana is pretty essential for me though, as frozen bananas have a great creamy texture, like ice cream, that makes me feel like I am having dessert for breakfast. It's also great if you love the flavor of banana but don't like the texture (like my husband) now he gets to enjoy a fruit he usually avoids.