Ricotta Hotcakes with Maple Butter Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Mother's Day

by: MeghanVK

March29,2012

4.6

5 Ratings

Ricotta Hotcakes with Maple Butter Recipe on Food52 (1)

Serves 6

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Author Notes

I spent six months in Sydney, Australia back in 2003, and my absolute favorite restaurant, which I still recommend to visitors headed to the best city ever, is bills. (Not Bill's. bills). Famous for its scrambled eggs, it also boasts incredible coconut bread, sweet-corn fritters, the best hot chocolate of my life, and ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter.

When I returned to school after that semester of Sydney bliss, I couldn't find (or afford) the fresh honeycomb used at bills, but this maple alternative, with a hint of almond, is quite nice. The hotcake recipe is cobbled together from a variety of my favorite methods, with a touch of lemon to keep things interesting. —MeghanVK

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: MeghanVK is a TV programmer who prefers salty to sweet.
WHAT: Three-bite pancakes topped with blueberries and a creamy maple butter that melts ever so slightly atop the warm pancakes. (We mean that in a good way.)
HOW: The maple butter has just three ingredients -- can you guess what they are? -- and the pancake batter isn't much harder: just dry ingredients into wet, plus folding in some whipped egg whites for extra fluff.
WHY WE LOVE IT: You wouldn't think maple and blueberries were meant for each other, but you'd be wrong. And these pancakes are the fluffiest around -- we love the tiny size, too. —Food52

Test Kitchen-Approved
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What You'll Need

Ingredients

Ricotta Hotcakes
2 cupsricotta
¹/₂ cupmilk
4 eggs, separated
1 tablespoonsugar
1 cupall-purpose flour
1 teaspoonbaking powder
¹/₄ teaspoonsalt
¹/₂ teaspoonlemon zest
1 tablespoonbutter, plus more as needed
2 cupsblueberries, for serving

Maple Butter
¹/₂ cupbutter, softened
¹/₄ cupmaple syrup (I prefer grade B, but it's up to you)
¹/₂ teaspoonalmond extract (or to taste)

Directions

Make the maple butter first: dump the softened butter into a bowl, add the maple syrup, and mash together thoroughly with a fork. Add the almond extract and continue mixing until everything is combined. Scrape into a small bowl and set aside or refrigerate if not using within the hour.
Onto the hotcakes: Whisk together the ricotta, milk, egg yolks, and sugar. Sprinkle over with the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined. Stir in the lemon zest.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites for as long as your forearms will let you, through the foamy stage until they start to form peaks (you can use a mixer for this, but for me, breakfast and electronics don't mix). Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. Add a little milk if the batter looks dry - this will depend largely on the quality and freshness of your ricotta.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Plop in about two tablespoons of batter per hotcake and cook for two minutes, until the undersides are golden, adjusting the heat as necessary. Flip and cook another two minutes or so, until cooked through, and remove to a plate. Continue until you have a pile of hotcakes. Serve with maple butter and blueberries.

Tags:

American
Ricotta
Maple Syrup
Milk/Cream
Butter
Mother's Day
Vegetarian
Breakfast

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34 Reviews

Diana April 15, 2018

I carefully separated the eggs and then forgot to beat the whites and fold them in! Never missed them. The cakes were delicious with just the yolks. In my household, would feed 4 handily. I don't know about 6 people, that's how good they are.

sydney January 1, 2017

Had been searching for a ricotta loaf-type cake and hadn't found one I liked. Wanted a recipe that used as much ricotta as possible but maybe wouldn't be dense and 'door-stoppy'. Saw this and it's rare to see this much ricotta required. Gave it a whirl (without zest, blueberries, or maple butter) and it's a KEEPER. Easy to throw together and WORKS. Delicious and I suspect it's versatile. You get a light, airy cake with the 'meatiness' of the ricotta. Perfect and easy.

Stephanie F. April 11, 2015

Added Lemon juice, vanilla, & and cinnamon to the batter, and put blueberries in batter to cook inside rather than on top.

Raya March 20, 2014

These are seriously amazing! I made them for breakfast and the kids gobbled them up. I used whole wheat pastry flour since that's all I had on hand. The batter was very dry before I added the egg whites so I did add some extra milk to soften it up.

leftoverquiche March 9, 2013

Just made these and they are amazing! I used the lemon zest of 1 whole lemon (might even go for more, but I love lemon). Had some blackberries on hand, so I cut up small pieces and put in the cakes. Will definitely make again. Thanks!

MeghanVK November 27, 2012

Hey y'all! In case you're thinking of making these, I recently made the maple butter with a different brand of almond extract, and it... wasn't great. The maple-butter flavor was there, but it had an eau de rubbing alcohol thing going on. So as a PSA, unless you have a great brand of almond extract available, you might want to leave it out.

lorelu October 7, 2012

So delicious. We had them this morning topped with bananas. What a treat.