Limey Bananacotta Pancakes
Our
last tub of stateside ricotta cheese was nearing its expiration date,
so AMC whipped up these little guys for breakfast on New Year's Day and
they were great! The recipe was adapted from a Moosewood
cookbook, and due to being mostly ricotta they're higher in protein and
lower in carbohydrates than normal pancakes.
This recipe should serve 4 regular people, or two people with little self control.
dry ingredients:
2/3 cup of flour
2 tbs sucanat, "sugar in the raw", or just plain old brown sugar (not packed), plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
a big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
wet ingredients:
6 egg whites
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsps (or more, if you want) lime zest
others necessaries:
Oil or butter for the pan
A couple of bananas, sliced and tossed with a little lime juice
Butter
Maple syrup (optional)
Fluff together the dries in a bowl. In another bowl, whip the egg
whites with a beater on medium until they're fluffy. Then fold in
the cheese, vanilla and zest, being gentle so you don't smash all the
air out of your fluffy egg whites.
Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix only just enough to combine the
two. Pancake batters, even ricotta ones, hate overmixing and
repay you with flat, sad results.
Now, to cook: these will try to stick to the pan, so your best
bet is to rub a good nonstick skillet with oil or butter before you
place it on medium heat and let it warm up. This is a stiff
batter, so when you spoon it into the pan to make your cake, spread it
around a bit to make it all generally the same thickness so it'll cook
evenly. When you see bubbles appearing all over the pancake, flip
'er over and cook the other side until golden.
Top with a pat of butter, banana slices and a sprinkle of your brown sugar. Drizzle with syrup, or not, and dig in!