TL/DR – Orange Ricotta Pancakes. Sneak summer squash or zucchini along with ricotta and orange zest into a delightful pancake batter for a moist and fluffy breakfast treat. –
Sneaky vegetable alert! The squash is starting to get going in the garden and pretty soon there will be too much to handle! These Orange Ricotta Pancakes work really well with either summer squash, as seen in this recipe, or zucchini. Summer squash allows the lovely golden hue from the orange zest to really shine. Use the finest shred setting on your grater to get undetectable summer squash.
In addition to a vegetable undercover, the ricotta cheese in this pancake is an undetectable form of extra protein. Despite these dense ingredients, these pancakes have a good balance of fluff and moisture. When testing the recipe, I messed around with almond flour, which made them a bit too dense. The recipe calls for all purpose flour, but it works with half all purpose and half white whole wheat flour.
Maybe I’m behind the times or the Jones’, but I still don’t own a griddle. I cook pancakes in a stainless steel skillet with an adequate amount of butter and these pancakes perform well using that method. They would probably do even better with a nonstick griddle.
What I like about the skillet is that I can cover them for a minute or two as they cook, which, (perhaps mistakenly,) I feel gives them a chance at that extra heat surrounding them and helps them be done in the middle. Maybe you’re a pancake guru, so take this advice with a grain of salt. I’m not a food scientist!
A note on controlling your heat. The skillet or griddle needs to be screaming hot initially, but as you work your way through the batches, it’s necessary to turn that heat down a bit to avoid scorching the butter. A decent skillet or griddle will maintain that heat and won’t need it to be on high the whole time.
I served these with My Baking Addiction’s Homemade Blueberry Sauce and it was so tasty. Also, orange marmalade works great with a bit of butter. Oh my! For more ways to use up that summer squash, try Summer Squash Quick Bread or Lemony Zucchini Bread.
A final note: Make double batches of pancakes, allow them to cool completely, and then freeze them in gallon freezer bags with parchment paper between them. Reheat in the microwave for about 20 seconds on each side and enjoy any morning of the week. It’s a great way to help picky eaters get some homemade nutrition in the morning.
Orange Ricotta Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1/4 c ricotta cheese
- 2 T melted butter
- 1 1/4 c milk
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 3 T granulated sugar
- 3/4 t almond extract
- 3 t baking powder
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 3/4 c finely shredded summer squash
- Additional butter for cooking
Directions
- Step 1 In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, ricotta and melted butter.
- Step 2 Whisk in the milk, orange zest, sugar and almond extract.
- Step 3 Sprinkle on the baking powder and salt and whisk.
- Step 4 Using a spatula, fold in the flour and the summer squash until just incorporated.
- Step 5 Using about 1/2 T butter for each batch, melt butter in a hot skillet over medium hight heat, or on a hot griddle, and cook for 2 – 3 minutes on each side. Lower the heat as necessary to avoid scorching. If using a skillet, cover for 1 minute of cooking on each side.
- Step 6 Serve with any toppings. Orange marmalade or blueberry sauce both work well.
- Step 7 Freeze any uneaten pancakes and reheat in the microwave for about 20 seconds on each side.
