Puffy lemon and creamcheese pancakes

Last October Cakes and I stayed at a great little B&B in Victoria. One of the items on the really fantastic breakfast menu was lemon ricotta pancakes. They were divine. Since the recipe I was promised by the proprietor of the B&B never materialized, I thought I'd make my own version. Although I do happen to have ricotta in the fridge, I felt like using cream cheese. So I did. These little pancakes are full of flavour and are sweet and spongy. I made them the size of the cross section of a largish orange, but you can make them what ever size you'd like. This recipe will make enough little pancakes for 3 or 4 people, depending on their appetites.

• rind of 1 lemon, minced very fine
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup milk, plus extra
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup golden sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat a good nonstick frying pan over medium low heat (I use "4" on my stove)

Whiz the milk, lemon and creamcheese together on high speed in a good blender until smooth.  Add the remaining ingredients and whiz until combined. Check the consistency of the batter - it should be just thin enough to pour easily from the jug into the frying pan, but not so thin it's runny. Add a little more milk, small potions at a time until the consistency is right.

Pour little circles of batter into the frying pan. If you do circles the size of an orange or grapefruit, you can probably fit 3 or 4 in your pan at one time, making it easy to do one complete serving at a time. In our house people get to start eating their pancakes straight away and don't have to wait for others so that each person can experience them fresh and fluffy from the pan. Flip the pancakes over gently when the bottoms are nice and (darkish) golden and the uncooked batter on the top has become bubbly and stopped looking glossy. Cook for 30 or 60 seconds more and transfer to a plate.

Top these lightly sweetened with whipped cream and cherries or raspberries.

Comments

[Stefanie Noble]

Yummy!

I had lemon ricotta silver dollar pancakes at the Dewitt Cafe in Ithaca and they were excellent as well. I definitely have to try these one... I might have to top with blueberries though.

[Stella]

Your pancakes look yummy! I clicked on the link to the B&B website and on their website it has a link to their recipes and the lemon ricotta pancakes is on there. Better grab the recipes before it is gone!

[Nicole Wright]

Do these really have no flour?

[jenjen]

These look delicious!
I love pancakes made with ricotta/cream cheese. It adds a texture like no other. Paired with some honeycomb butter its a delight!

[Ian M. Gray]

Your Lemon and cream cheese pancakes are a variation of common or garden "Scotch" pancakes (although there is no whisky in them) also known in England as "drop scones". Try using golden syrup instead of the sugar!
Ian Gray, Bearsden near Glasgow, Scotland, UK