BLD's Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

You may remember awhile back that I raved about BLD's Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes and since then, I have been craving them, especially since I can't have them all the time. I did a search online for the recipe and found them here. OK, clearly I am late on the discovery since they published this article back in 2008, but I have the recipe now and that's what matters, right? =)

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Adapted from BLD

The restaurant recommends using a dryer ricotta with large curds such as Gioia (a wet ricotta will make the batter grainy).

3 eggs, yolks and whites separated

3/4 cup ricotta cheese (I got mine from TJ's of course!)

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups milk

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 pints blueberries

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and ricotta cheese so that there are no large lumps of cheese, but make sure the mixture does not become too smooth (this will make the pancakes wet and grainy). Here's the egg yolks and ricotta together.

Here's what mine looked like after some mixing.

Whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla, then the milk.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Fold this into the egg batter just until no lumps remain. Don't fret, it looks really watery, but try to take out the huge lumps and it will thicken a lot more once you add in the egg whites too. Once I looked at my runny batter, I told my roommate, we might have to go out for brunch after all, but it turned out really well ... so hang in there.

3. Separately, whip the egg whites to medium-stiff, shiny peaks, about 4 minutes. Gently fold these into the batter just until uniformly combined.

4. Ladle a generous one-fourth cup of batter onto a medium-hot, lightly greased griddle for each pancake. Place 10 to 12 blueberries on each pancake and cook, about 2 minutes per side, until the cakes are golden-brown and cooked through.

Here was my first pancake, which is usually a throw away, but it looked pretty good. Success!

Here's a large stack of them. Serve with some maple syrup and enjoy! I think this recipe can easily serve 6. They were so fluffy and just like I remembered them at BLD. Thank you LA Times for the recipe.

I'd like to try swapping out the blueberries for just lemon zest or just chocolate chips next time. This might turn into a weekly brunch ritual for us. =)