MY LIFE IN PANCAKES

CHRONICLE: ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO VIA BALTIMORE and VIENNA WITH A STOP IN DISNEYLAND

Greetings Chroniclers! Are you a pancake person or a waffle person? I’m definitely on team pancake. Waffles have their place, but pancakes top my list of indulgent breakfast food, especially now that strawberries are coming into season. As always, thanks for reading and sharing.

I’ve always loved pancakes.

If given a choice, mine is pancakes over waffles any day.

My mother sometimes made pancakes at home on Sunday morning. The butter melted into the maple syrup, inevitably dribbled down the sides of the stack, pooled at the bottom. Once in a while we went out for pancakes. Glass syrup dispensers, lined up like beacons at the edge of the Formica table, were filled with syrups like boysenberry and butter pecan.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Who knew syrup could be anything but maple? A push of the thumb made the metal covering the pouring hole slide back, allowing the syrup to be poured over my stack of silver dollar pancakes, mingling with the mostly melted butter.

Shortly after I got married, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several months later, my mother attended a conference in Santa Fe and planned to stay with us in Albuquerque for another few days before returning home to Baltimore. I drove up to Santa Fe to pick her up, but before returning to Albuquerque, we had ricotta pancakes for a late breakfast at a little café she’d discovered near her hotel.

First batch of Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

“Wait until you taste these pancakes. I’ve had them twice this week already. The woman who owns the café told me she makes the batter in the blender.”

Unfortunately, neither the café nor my mother is still around. But mom was right about those ricotta pancakes. They were light yet filling, yummier because we ate them together, a first shared meal in my new home state.

During the Thanksgiving that I was pregnant with my son, we had a pancake dinner at our local pancake house. It wasn’t something I’d planned, but I was too tired and lethargic to mess with cooking a turkey and side dishes or baking pies. When we arrived at the restaurant, I was comforted by how many other diners, most definitely not pregnant, might also have not had the energy to fuss over preparing a big holiday meal.

My son was born in July 1989. The labor and delivery went quickly but by the time we called relatives and swooned over our baby, the dinner hour had long since passed. Fortunately, the same 24 hour pancake house where we’d had Thanksgiving was directly across the street from the hospital. My husband dutifully crossed the street and returned with a carry-out box; pancakes stacked to the brim. He even knew to bring maple and boysenberry syrup! I was stunned by how familiar those pancakes tasted as I began trying to comprehend the world as a new mother.

It turns out that motherhood and pancakes are life partners. Pancakes became a staple in my dinner rotation. Student loans were still being re-paid, the current bills seemingly never ceased, all while we began saving for retirement and starting a college fund for our son.

Our “vegetable” on pancake night was a sort of Waldorf salad concoction I made with chopped apples, sectioned oranges, red or green grapes cut in half, all mixed with plain yogurt and a bit of sour cream. Because everybody in the family likes cinnamon, I always sprinkled some on top. It was a hit every time.

Time marched on as it always does. I went to countless pancake breakfast fundraisers, enjoyed Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes for breakfast during my one and only visit to Disneyland, cooked experimental pancakes at home with ingredients like buckwheat and blue corn. There were multiple attempts to recreate the ricotta pancakes I remembered eating with my mother, all unsuccessful.

When the “baby” was nearing thirty, I lived in Vienna for about eighteen months. I discovered that Austrians eat pancakes in the form of Kaiserschmarn usually served as dessert. Austrians aren’t messing around here, folks. Named after emperor Franz Joseph I, Kaiserschmarn are raisin studded, sweetened pancakes torn into bite size pieces, sprinkled with powdered sugar, accompanied by a fruit preserve or applesauce. Most people think of apple strudel when they think of Austrian dessert. And they’re not wrong. But Kaiserschmarn are possibly more ubiquitous than apple strudel and in my mind are the ultimate comfort dessert. Every time I ate them, I found myself wondering what else Franz Joseph I enjoyed eating.

Kaiserschmarn courtesy of Shutterstock

This week, I made a batch of lemon ricotta pancakes.

In the last couple of posts, I’ve talked about trying to eat less meat while still keeping my protein intake high enough to keep me from getting too hungry. Beans and legumes are proving difficult for my digestive system these days, so when I saw this recipe from King Arthur Baking it caught my attention.

I will forever associate ricotta pancakes with my mother. Her absence is felt, keenly, thirty-seven years later. Making these pancakes, here in New Mexico where I first ate them, has proven to be a bit of a balm to soothe my longing and lean into the memory of her. The addition of lemon zest is right up her alley…something she would have done in her own kitchen.

Strawberries and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes topped with Honey Butter

I promise you; this recipe is worth the time it includes to let the batter rest before folding in the beaten egg whites. These are like the ricotta pancakes I remember sharing with my mother. They ‘re light and fluffy because they include beaten egg whites and a resting time which allows the flour in the batter to hydrate. The ricotta cheese makes them high in protein, perfect for a ravenous breakfast eater like me. I topped mine with a vanilla honey butter that’s easy to mix together. Fresh sliced strawberries makes them even more irresistible. No joke, this is sheer perfection on a plate.

So, if you’re like me and always want pancakes over waffles, I think you’ll love making these.

Here's the recipe:

LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES

Makes about 2 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

3 large eggs, separated

2 cups (473 ml) buttermilk

3 tablespoons (43g) granulated sugar

1 cup (227g) ricotta cheese

1 ¾ cup (210g) all purpose flour or gluten free mix

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Zest of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon Diamond Kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the egg yolks, buttermilk, sugar, and ricotta cheese.

2.  Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and salt, stirring together until combined.

3. Let batter rest for 45-60 minutes.

4.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gently fold into the batter until no streaks of egg white remain.

5.  Lightly grease a griddle or skillet with a neutral oil like avocado.

6.  Heat over medium until hot enough so that a small splash of water sizzles. Portion out batter using a  1/3 cup measuring cup onto the hot skillet.

7.  Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side until bubbles begin to appear and the underside is golden brown. Flip and cook for about 1 ½ minutes on the other side.

HONEY BUTTER

You can whip this up while the pancake batter rests.

3 tablespoons room temperature butter

4 teaspoons honey

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl using electric hand mixer or a sturdy wooden spoon. Spread as much or as little as you prefer on top of your pancakes.