Ricotta Pancakes with Honeycomb ButterPrint Recipe

And so Mr Man left for China on Saturday and we miss him already. He is a busy man and even though quality time together is minimal during the week – on weekends we tend to spend every moment we can as a family. So it was a little gloomy to wake up on a Sunday morning and not have him pottering around with his cereal and toast in the kitchen.

So we decided to cheer ouselves up and made these – by the time they were ready it was officially brunch and we were still in pajama’s – but that made them all the more enjoyable.

This recipe comes from one of my favourite Sydney breakfast haunts – Bills. It was always a toss up between this and the corn cakes served with bacon and an avocado salsa – both equally fine. Occasionally I managed to persuade Mr Man to choose one whilst I had the other (and proceeded to eat most of his as well) – the things you do for love

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups full fat ricotta
¾ cup full cream (whole) milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plain (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50 grams/1.76 ounces butter
1 punnet of fresh strawberries, quartered or halved
icing sugar for dusting

Honeycomb Butter
250 grams/8.8 ounces unsalted butter softened
100 grams/3.5 ounces sugar honeycomb crushed with a rolling pin or a Crunchie bar
2 tablespoons honey

Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 1/3 cup of batter per hotcake into the pan (don’t cook more than 3 per batch). Cook over a 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. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients. Stack 2 hotcakes on a plate and top with strawberries and a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar.

Honeycomb Butter
Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours. Store leftover honeycomb butter in the fridge for up to 24 hours, or in the freezer – it’s great on toast.

Yeild: around 8 – 10

Source: Bill Granger

© 2011, Michelle. All rights reserved.