FINALS BREAKFAST: RASPBERRY, LEMON, & RICOTTA PANCAKES

Holy mackerel-- these pancakes are DIVINE. Sweet raspberries with a zip of lemon and the rich, melty ricotta made this a breakfast I almost kept entirely for myself.

Since I'm a big girl now (all finished with my Bachelor's degree as of last week), I wanted to make G a tasty breakfast before his last final of the semester. The problem is that I leave for work pretty early and I don't like waking up earlier than I have to. I decided I'd make something the night before that he could re-heat. I've made waffles or pancakes toaster-size so they can be revived *almost* as new.

So, last night I experimented with a recipe from my favorite cook book. I made a few changes to the ricotta pancakes found inside and was quite please with the way they turned out... even though I'm terrible at flipping pancakes and they looked much worse than they tasted.

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Raspberry, Lemon & Ricotta Pancakes 

2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
1 lemon
1/4 cup of sugar, plus 1 Tbs

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, separate yolks and whites
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

Mix raspberries, 1/4 cup of sugar and zest from the entire lemon in a bowl, gently crushing berries as you stir. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and remaining sugar. In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks, milk, and ricotta cheese. In another bowl (YES, another bowl....), beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, set aside.  Add wet mixture to dry mixture, stirring until mostly smooth. Gently fold in berry mixture and egg whites.

Here's the tricky part, at least for me. Hopefully your pancakes will turn out before you make your last one. I used a medium skillet, warmed with coconut oil for my cakes-- you can use butter, too. Using my 1/3 cup measuring cup, I plopped the batter in the center of my skillet and flipped my cake too soon. After a lot of trial and error (and patience), the perfect pancakes came when I saw bubbles form in the center of my pancake, THEN I flipped them. I'm going to blame it on my skillet, it's not very good. We got one pot from our gift registry and I have yet to buy a decent pot and pan set. Maybe for Christmas?

We ate these with homemade maple syrup and they were delectable. Even though I'm a waffle girl, I'm definitely making these again.

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Pancakes, or waffles?

Any tips for someone who can't flip her pancakes?