The pizza thread got me thinking about my quest for the perfect home made pancake.
More than a decade ago my wife and I spent months and months perfecting our pancake recipe and we have enjoyed it since. Last weekend we made a slight change to the classic version, our first ever change, and loved it. We made used ricotta cheese in place of sour cream that we used in our originals.
The ingredients come from Cooks Illustrated:
2 cups flour (we have tried many types but find King Arthur unbleached all purpose to be the best...we tried their organic as well as Bob's Red Mill organic unbleached all purpose and didnt notice a difference)
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream for the classic.....1/3 cup ricotta for the new version
2 large eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
As usual mix dry in one bowl and wet in another.
We differ from CI in our preperation, and find it makes a major difference.
For liquids:
Seperate the whites and yolks. Incorporate the ricotta (or sour cream) into the milk; incorporate the butter into the egg yolks; and then combine the two until they are consistent liquid. Then whip the whites to med. peaks.
Dry:
Sift everything together twice.
Combine:
Pour liquid, minus egg whites, into dry and mix very, very, very lightly. Then fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter until just combined.
Cook as usual...we use a very old 2 burner stove top griddle that needs no addition lubing, but on those occassions we desire a snappier crust we use a tiny bit of butter on the griddle for each batch.
Additions:
We find that the classic buttermilk pancakes are great with blueberries, or the kids love chocolate chips, but the ricotta version is simply awesome with blueberries...the ricotta adds enough sweetness that you almost don't need maple syrup.
Now, I need someone who has gone to this effort on waffle batter because the above doesn't make such great waffles and I have tried at least 10 different waffle recipes and none are all that all that...unless of course you want to discuss the Liefe Waffles I make every April in honor of "La Doyene" or Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the oldest of cyclings spring classics. Those are outrageous.
More than a decade ago my wife and I spent months and months perfecting our pancake recipe and we have enjoyed it since. Last weekend we made a slight change to the classic version, our first ever change, and loved it. We made used ricotta cheese in place of sour cream that we used in our originals.
The ingredients come from Cooks Illustrated:
2 cups flour (we have tried many types but find King Arthur unbleached all purpose to be the best...we tried their organic as well as Bob's Red Mill organic unbleached all purpose and didnt notice a difference)
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream for the classic.....1/3 cup ricotta for the new version
2 large eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
As usual mix dry in one bowl and wet in another.
We differ from CI in our preperation, and find it makes a major difference.
For liquids:
Seperate the whites and yolks. Incorporate the ricotta (or sour cream) into the milk; incorporate the butter into the egg yolks; and then combine the two until they are consistent liquid. Then whip the whites to med. peaks.
Dry:
Sift everything together twice.
Combine:
Pour liquid, minus egg whites, into dry and mix very, very, very lightly. Then fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter until just combined.
Cook as usual...we use a very old 2 burner stove top griddle that needs no addition lubing, but on those occassions we desire a snappier crust we use a tiny bit of butter on the griddle for each batch.
Additions:
We find that the classic buttermilk pancakes are great with blueberries, or the kids love chocolate chips, but the ricotta version is simply awesome with blueberries...the ricotta adds enough sweetness that you almost don't need maple syrup.
Now, I need someone who has gone to this effort on waffle batter because the above doesn't make such great waffles and I have tried at least 10 different waffle recipes and none are all that all that...unless of course you want to discuss the Liefe Waffles I make every April in honor of "La Doyene" or Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the oldest of cyclings spring classics. Those are outrageous.
