Lemon Pancakes
We love to make these light, eggy pancakes when berries are in season, as they're especially good garnished with fresh strawberries or blueberries, and served with a side of smoky bacon or sausage.
We offer two different toppings here: a simple honey butter, or a ricotta-vanilla sauce. Both are absolutely delightful, and the perfect complement for the lemony pancakes.
Read our blog about these pancakes, with additional photos, at Bakers' Banter.
Pancakes
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (the grated rind of 1 large lemon) OR 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Honey Butter
- 3/4 cup soft butter
- 1/4 cup honey
Vanilla Sauce
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
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6) To serve with honey butter: Stir together the soft butter and honey till smooth. |
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7) To serve with vanilla sauce: Mix all of the ingredients until smooth in a small mixing bowl. For an ultra-smooth sauce, blend in a blender or food processor. Refrigerate until needed. Thin with 1 tablespoon milk or cream if sauce is too thick. |
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8) Serve hot pancakes with honey butter OR vanilla sauce. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 15 mins. to 20 mins.
- Baking time:
- Total time:
- 40 mins. to 60 mins.
- Yield:
- Twenty 4" pancakes
- Recipe comments (9) »
Tips from our bakers
- Can you use milk in place of buttermilk, or buttermilk powder in place of fresh buttermilk? Yes, and yes. Replace the buttermilk with milk, reducing the baking soda to 1/2 teaspoon. The flavor won't be quite as good, nor will the pancakes be quite as light-textured.To use buttermilk powder, whisk 1/2 cup buttermilk powder together with the rest of the dry ingredients. substitute 2 cups water for the buttermilk in the recipe.
- If you wish, make the pancakes a day ahead, cool on a wire rack, then wrap tightly and refrigerate. To reheat, preheat your oven to 375°F, place the pancakes on a lightly greased baking sheet, and heat for 5 minutes.
- to make honey butter in a smaller or larger quantity, simply remember this: two parts butter to 1 part honey, by weight. 1 tablespoon of butter weighs 1/2 ounce; 1 tablespoon of honey weighs 3/4 ounce.
Reviews
05/20/2009
I have a 3 year old who adores pancakes, so in the last couple years I have tried at least 15 recipes. This one is fabulous! I substituted dried buttermilk as directed in the recipe notes, and cottage cheese for the ricotta since that is what I had. Also, I opted to use Smucker's Simply Fruit Spread rather than the honey butter or vanilla sauce (less work), and it was so good I don't see myself ever doing differently. I cannot tell you how wonderful they were. Plus I feel good about the added protein from the extra egg and cottage cheese. Try them, you will not be disappointed! Thank you KAF!
Thank you for sharing your recipe alterations! What a delicious treat! Irene at KAF
04/20/2009
04/13/2009
the pancakes were light, soft, and chewy. great with homemade strawberry syrup and blueberry syrup. didn't prefer the vanilla sauce...had a toothpaste like consistency.
Thanks for your evaluation of the vanilla sauce. If you - or others - find it too thick, thin it with 1 Tablespoon milk or cream until it reaches the consistency you desire. Irene at KAF
04/08/2009
I, too, made these from the cookbook under the name Zephyr pancakes. So yummy. The nutmeg is stronger than the lemon flavor, so I may zest two lemons next time. These are so light they almost float off the plate! Delicious with honey butter. Not for everyday because of the extra time involved, yet simple enough to whip up if the ingredients are on hand.
03/31/2009
The pancakes were very light and fluffy. We served them with both the honey butter and the Vanilla Sauce and loved them both. We added fresh strawberries with the Vanilla Sauce and just couldn't get enough, they were so good.
03/29/2009
Light, lemony and somehow creamy. Very good pancakes that went across really well with my wife and 10-year old. And they leave the kitchen and family room smelling like lemons.
03/29/2009
I made these today, but from the recipe out of the Baker's Companion which has them listed as Lemon Zephyr pancakes. It just calls for the ricotta topping. So I would be interested in trying the the lemon honey butter topping. I served the sauce on the pancakes with fresh sliced strawberries (heaven) and then some with a thickened raspberry sauce made from frozen sweetened raspberries. I liked the strawberries best as the raspberry sauce was too sweet where the berries provided a tart counterpoint to the sweet ricotta sauce and lemon. I have made them before with slightly sweetened and thickened strawberry sauce and loved them that way too. I think I would try fresh raspberries next time with the lemon honey butter sauce. The tartness of the berries would be great. This is the second time I have made this recipe and I rated it with an Excellent rating in my cookbook the first time.
03/22/2009
If you are making this recipe, DO NOT USE A SKILLET!!! I could not find my griddle so I decided to use the skillet instead. For some reason, the pancakes would burn and then be uncooked on the inside. I tried 3 skillets, lowering the heat to almost nothing, pouring a smaller amount of batter on to the skillet, only making one at a time, and then making one tiny silver dollar size pancake by itself but nothing worked. Having wasted half the batter I then decided to use the waffle iron I have and they turned out delicious! I only used 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and they were wonderful. Definitely would make again, and hopefully I can find my griddle to actually make pancakes. The honey butter was quite tasty on them too!
03/20/2009
The taste of spring is in this recipe with the taste of summer not far behind if you use either strawbeery or blueberry syrup or crushed strawberrys mixed into the vanilla ricotta topping.....These went over well at a birthday brunch for a 72 year old Gram and all of the children including a 3, 6 7 and 10 year old great grand children Everyone wanted the recipe
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