Aviva Wittenberg is passionate about making lunches – she regularly shares her immaculately-styled bento box lunches on Instagram. Her first cookbook, Lunchbox, features 75 of her packable lunch recipe favourites, including these make-ahead Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. “I routinely double this recipe and freeze what I don’t pack for lunch, so that I have a stash of pancakes on hand at all times,” Wittenberg writes in her cookbook.
The secret ingredient for fluffy pancakes is whole-milk ricotta, but if you can get fresh ricotta, Wittenberg writes, it will make an even fluffier pancake. “Fresh ricotta is a magical thing, but if you can’t get your hands on any, use the best whole-milk ricotta you can find.”
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes Recipe
Whole-milk ricotta makes these lemony ricotta pancakes extra moist and fluffy.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup whole-milk ricotta
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- zest of 2 lemons
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp melted butter cooled
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- butter for cooking
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and juice, butter, and sugar. Whisk together until smooth and you have broken up any lumps of ricotta.
- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together, then add to the ricotta mixture. Switch your whisk for a rubber spatula and mix the dry ingredients in until you have a uniform batter.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add a knob of butter. Once it has melted, scoop about ¼ cup of batter and pour it into the pan. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to fit about three pancakes in the pan at a time.
- After 4 or 5 minutes, when the edges are browned and little bubbles have formed on the surface, flip the pancakes and cook for about another 2 minutes, until golden. Transfer the pancakes to a cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature before packing.
Excerpted from Lunchbox by Aviva Wittenberg. Copyright © 2022 Aviva Wittenberg. Photography ©2022 Aviva Wittenberg. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
