Light and fluffy pancakes with a creaminess one can only dream of.Â
I love breakfast. And nothing beats waking up to some seriously fluffy and warm ricotta hotcakes dowsed with honeycomb. Â Extra fluffy with creamy, custard-like middles, ricotta hotcakes are something pancake connoisseurs have to try making (or die trying).
Inspired by Bill Granger – who hails from my sunny hometown, Sydney – his signature ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter and banana are to die for. I’ve had my fair share of his ricotta hotcakes in Sydney (Surry Hills), and recently in London (Nottinghill) and Tokyo (Ometosando) this year. Now is the time to recreate the ‘magic’ back home (until he sets up shop here at least, but who knows when that day will come – or where I’ll be by then!).
Mind you, there is no ‘magic’ or skilful technique required in this recipe. From a methodological perspective though, what separates these ricotta hotcakes apart from regular ones is the fact that you are meant to separate the egg yolks from the whites and beat the latter until stiff peaks form before folding it into the batter.
Note: The ricotta isn’t something you necessarily taste — the pancakes definitely don’t taste “cheesy” — but rather, the ricotta adds a magical milky richness and creaminess to each bite.
INGREDIENTS (makes 6 medium sized pancakes, serves 2):
- 70 grams of fresh milk
- 70 gram of plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 110 gram of ricotta
- 2 eggs, white and yolks separated
- pinch of salt
- butter for pan-frying
- 1-2 tablespoons of honeycomb, to serve
- icing sugar, to dust
METHOD:
1)Â Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.
2) Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until combined. 
3) Place the egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until still peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.
4) Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don’t cook more than 3 per batch). Cook over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.
5) Transfer hotcakes to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients (e.g. banana, honeycomb, etc). Dust with icing sugar.
Found some overly ripe bananas lying around so decided to seize the opportunity and do something about it. Inspired by Nigella’s banana chocolate muffin recipe, I decided to put to good use my Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa I purchased from Ghiradelli Square last year in San Francisco and whip out my pretty blue and white striped muffin paper cups for display. Despite Nigella’s recipe says the batter can make 12 muffins, I guess I was too overly generous with my serving sizes since I only ended up with 5 muffins (albeit steroid-sized). I handed out my muffins to my friends the next day and the feedback was that they all thought it was delicious and super moist, not too oily or sweet.
