Lemon Ricotta Pancakes for Father’s Day

Ever since I first heard about lemon ricotta pancakes, I’ve wanted to try them. They sound like the perfect Father’s Day breakfast.

I especially wanted to make them because my daughter went to Claire’s on Cedros in Solana Beach, California, and told me she ate the best pancakes of her life there.

How could stinking Claire make the best pancakes of her life when mine, her baker/cook mom’s, are supposed to be the best?

(The answer is easy, I’d never made lemon ricotta pancakes.) I wouldn’t rest until I found a great recipe and created pancakes that could at least compete, if not pummel Claire’s.

So, I turned to Food Network, usually a great place for recipes. Bobby Flay’s lemon ricotta pancakes were tasty, but too mushy. I almost turned to Krusteaz , thinking I could just cheat and add lemon and ricotta, but found a recipe by Williams Sonoma, that was really popular. (By the way, Krusteaz rocks for regular pancakes, you just add water and a little vanilla and they’re great and so easy.)

I tweaked the WS recipe by cooking the pancakes in butter and by adding two drops of lemon oil, but changed nothing else. The key to these is the whipped egg whites, which made them nice and fluffy.

(And yes, I know carbs are now the enemy, but it’s going to be Father’s Day for God’s sake, so live a little and try these! Pancakes once a year will not kill you.)

My daughter, whose palate is far too sophisticated for a 19-year-old, thought they might be a skinch too lemony, but she liked them.  Just leave out the oil and they’ll be less lemony, but just as good. (I never got out of her whether they were better than Claire’s or not.) Guess I’ll have to go there and see for myself. They’re really good with a berry compote. I’m partial to blackberry, but blueberry is great too.

These pancakes are a combination of my dad’s two favorite things, pancakes and lemon, and he would have loved them on Father’s Day, or any day. In his honor, I wolfed mine down just like he would have. It was a tiny tribute to a man who was everything a father should be, and much more.

And If you’re making the pancakes, definitely serve bacon. (Unless you’re a healthy vegetarian. In that case forget this part.) But do it the easy and tasty way.  Lay it out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle it lightly with brown sugar and bake it at 375 until it’s done – about 20 minutes to a half hour.  You will see God when you taste it. Trust me on this.

I’m sending along a link to the Williams Sonoma recipe, but will share it here too.  Thanks to all the fathers, out there who do their best to be the finest dads they can be. Your kids are watching and learning from you every day. Happy Father’s Day! I hope you get pancakes.

Williams Sonoma Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

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