Sunday Morning Honey and Blueberry Fluffy Pancakes
Oh pancakes, how my relationship with you used to be fraught with too much flour, not enough milk, a clumpy batter or a too thin batter. Bad pancake? Yup, I've been there. But not anymore. I am thrilled to introduce you to my Sunday Morning Honey and Blueberry Fluffy Pancakes.
I have been working solidly since last year perfecting my dream pancake recipe, and I've done it. These pancakes have all the things that I love - backyard honey lovingly made by the bees in Toowoomba from Settler Hives, fresh lemon and blueberries. Oh, and ricotta and buttermilk, my secret weapons. It took me ages to realise that the perfect pancake is not actually about the flour. It's about creating as much lightness, and air, and lustre as you can and that is how I stumbled upon using ricotta and buttermilk - not just plain old ordinary milk.
What makes these the best pancakes you'll ever make?
Using ricotta and buttermilk instead of milk.
Adding fresh juice and the zest of one lemon for a surprising yet subtle zing.
Adding frozen blueberries, not fresh, and letting them mix into your batter so it turns a delightful deep marbled blue.
Drizzling an overflowing dollop of honey straight from the beehive into the batter, but also all over the top of your pancake stack. Move over maple syrup, honey is here. And I'm liking it so much more.
Cooking each pancake in salted butter so the outside of the pancake becomes deliciously crunchy and decadent.
Cooling the pan every fourth pancake so the butter doesn't continue to burn, and therefore so you don't burn the pancakes.
Once you've made these pancakes, you'll never go back to schlepping flour, milk, sugar and eggs into a mixing bowl and crossing your fingers while hoping for the best. Nor will you ever buy a pre-mix pancake shake ever again. Your have now entered upper echelon of pancakes, and best of all they are so easy and simple to make.
Just wait till you try these when you feeling like a slow start to your morning. Cue: arching of your eyebrows and a slight tilt of your eyes up to the heavens as you enjoy these yourselves this weekend...they really are, that good. Read on for my Sunday Morning Honey and Blueberry Fluffy Pancakes.
Time
15 minute to prep
15 to 30 minute to cook, depending how you load your frying pan
Serving size
12 small pancakes
Ingredients
3/4 cup ricotta
1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk (you can also use any milk of your choice as an alternative but buttermilk helps make the pancakes super light and fluffy)
2 tbsp honey, I love Settler Hives Growler Honey the best!
2 eggs, room temperature
2 heaped tbsp salted butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Juice of one lemon and zest of one lemon
Pinch of sea salt flakes
1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 and 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
Salted butter, for frying the pancakes
Method
In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, buttermilk (or milk), honey, eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract, juice and zest of lemon using a hand held whisk until combined. This should only take a minute or so.
Add salt, flour and baking powder to the mixture and stir until combined. If it's a bit runny, add 1/3 cup of extra flour. If it's a little bit lumpy, that's ok.
Gently fold in the blueberries and let the better sit for 5 minutes, this is so the blueberries defrost in the batter.
Heat a pan on medium.
Gently stir the batter for a few seconds; watch as the colour from the blueberries melt into the batter to create a marbled effect - don't over stir otherwise you'll lose some of the air in the batter and it will turn completely blue.
Add a little butter to the pan. Use a cookie scoop, or an ice cream scoop, or even a 1/4 measuring cup (using one of these utensils will ensure your pancakes are a similar size) to pour the pancake batter into the hot pan.
Cook until small bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the pancake, this means it's ready to flip.
Flip the pancake over using a spatula and cook the other side for 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside on a cooling tray. Try to avoid setting aside on a plate if you can as they will sweat and get chewy.
Repeat until the batter is gone, but remember - don't overcrowd the pan, cook up to two pancakes (if your pan is large) at a time. Anymore and it will end in chaos. Another tip, cool the pan every fourth pancake so the butter doesn't continue to burn, and therefore so you don't burn the pancakes. You can cool the pan by taking it off the heat for a few minutes or run cold water onto it, and wiping dry before re-heating.
Serve the pancakes with a generous drizzling of honey and fresh blueberries.
If you make my Sunday Morning Honey and Blueberry Fluffy Pancakes, or any other recipes on here, remember to tag me on Instagram @smorkitchen #smorkitchen. I love seeing what you cook!
