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).

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)