First things first, I want to apologize to my blog here. I’m sorry blog, for neglecting you for so incredibly long. Sure I moved a few times, picked up and dropped a few different jobs, fled a country or two, BUT guess what, that’s over now. No more neglecting my cooking, my crafts, or my little pet project here. I’ve got a backlog of recipes for you and I’m not going to let them rot on my external hard drive forever! So, without further ado, I present to you all some lovely beautiful delicious pancakes filled with blueberries and made with *homemade* ricotta. Wassap, yeah, I made cheese. It was easy. NBD. Look at them. Yum. Aren’t they pretty? Yes. Yes they are.

I adore pancakes. They are the perfect midmorning treat. If they’re done right they can be absolutely heavenly. Light, fluffy, and drizzled in maple syrupy magic. Sure they can also be dense and heavy and gross but lets just pretend that sacrilegious poorly made pancakes don’t actually exist. Anyways, lets get started. First step: ingredients.

I always like to collect my ingredients before I start cooking to make sure I have everything I need and don’t end up half a cup of flour short when I’m in the thick of it. Once you’ve got everything up and accounted for, whisk together your ricotta (homemade or not, ain’t no thang), egg yolks, vanilla, milk, and sugar. Once that’s all smooth and combined and junk gradually mix in the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. You’ll end up with a nice beige puddle of goo. Yummmm.

Once your batter is all mixed and smooth it’s time to whip some egg whites till they are nice and stiff. The thing that makes these pancakes so incredibly fluffy and wonderful is the egg whites that add a lot of extra air and thus fluff. It is science. Don’t argue with it.

Once your egg whites are fluffy and holding their peaks, which means you can pull them up with the whisk and they don’t drop back down into the bowl, gently fold them into your batter goo. It is key at this point to mix the batter and egg whites as little as possible. You want to keep as much air in the whites and batter as possible so it stays nice and fluffy. If you beat them together and mush it all up then all your hard work whipping your eggs will have been for nothing. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Once you’ve done all that it’s time to fold in your blueberries. I used frozen guys and let them come to room temperature first. One thing that happens a lot when cooking/baking with any kind of berry is that there juices get EVERYWHERE. They will stain your whole operation blue or red or some other god forsaken berry color. This can be avoided by tossing them with flour before you mix them into your batter. Sounds weird but it works surprisingly well. The flour absorbs excess juice and keeps your batter from getting all streaky/blue!

I cooked each pancake on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes then put them on a plate in the oven at 250º to keep them warm while I cooked up the rest of the batch. I ended up with about 5 dinner plate sized pancakes in total. Yes, they were beautiful. Yes, they were delicious. Yes, I ate too many. Yes, you should make them as soon as humanly possible. DO IT.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

(Adapted from Food & Wine’s Recipe)

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups non fat milk
• 6 oz ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp & 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups frozen blueberries (thawed) or 2.5 cups fresh blueberries
• 2 tbsp flour for coating the berries

If using frozen blueberries, measure out and set aside so berries can thaw and come to room temperature.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In separate larger bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, milk, egg yolks, vanilla, and sugar. Once the wet mixture is well combined, gradually mix in dry ingredients until batter is smooth and there are no clumps of flour or cheese. Using either a whisk or an electric hand mixer, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Once egg whites are well whipped, gently fold them into the wet batter. Do not over mix. Gently stir 2tbsp of flour into the blueberries until the berries are evenly coated in flour. Gently fold the berries into the batter until just mixed.

Heat a frying pan over medium flame with either butter or non stick spray. Pour in desired amount of batter and cook for 5-7 minutes or until bottom has begun to brown. Once pancake is firm enough, gently flip and again, wait until the bottom has become a golden brown. Serve immediately with maple syrup and enjoy!