Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Personally, I don’t need an excuse to make pancakes on any day. Soft pillowy cakes of heaven layered with a sweet berry sauce, what could be possibly be better on this planet?!

Last year, I dedicated a post to all things pancakes and gave you my science-backed top tips for the BEST Saturday morning pancakes. Today I decided to incorporate some of those top tips into these luscious pancakes. They are incredibly soft and fluffy as well as being light and airy on the inside. I find that ricotta greatly improves the flavour of pancakes as well as lightening the texture. I made a YouTube video last year about how you can make it at home if your wallet isn’t ready to commit.

A couple of weeks ago I did a Berry Waffles Breakfast In Bed for Valentine’s Day and since then I’ve been itching to do something under the same theme. There’s just something about enjoying  warm comfort food in Egyptian cotton sheets that rings all the bells for me. Lucky for me, there was half a bottle of champagne in the fridge that I could use as a prop here. Even though Valentine’s Day has passed, it doesn’t mean you can’t surprise your loved one this weekend with a romantic gesture. Today is the last day of February, but we still have many more holidays to look forward to such as Mother’s Day, Women’s Day and even looking so far as Thanksgiving! This is the perfect way to express gratitude whether it be to your parents, your lover or even your best friend!

It doesn’t have to be pricey, it’s the thought that counts. I found this wooden tray amongst the other household junk that was thrown out and decided to keep it knowing that it would come in handy later. I harvested a couple of roses from the garden and set them up with a vase and water. We’ve already spoken about the champagne and I just used a ramekin of fresh strawberries and the champagne as decoration. Don’t limit your creativity lovers, inspiration is everywhere!

Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes                                                                       serves 4 

Ingredients

For the pancakes:

• 2 eggs
• ½ cup milk of your choice or buttermilk
• ½ cup ricotta (may substitute with more buttermilk)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 2 and ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp castor sugar
• ½ cup blueberries

For the berry sauce:

• ½ cup chopped strawberries
• ½ cup blueberries
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cornflour + 1 tsp water

Method

To make the pancakes: 

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, ricotta, lemon juice, butter and vanilla essence until combined. Sift in the flour, baking powder and sugar and gently stir to combine. Drop in the blueberries and gently stir again until the blueberries are evenly distributed. Allow the batter to rest 10 minutes whilst you heat up the frying pan and prepare the berry sauce (instructions below).

Once the frying pan is hot, brush with a little melted butter. Drop the pancake mixture ¼ cup at a time into the hot pan and cook until bubbles start forming on one side before gently flipping over and cooking for another 2 minutes before removing from heat. Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter. Top with berry sauce and enjoy!

To make the berry sauce:

To make the blueberry sauce, add the strawberries, blueberries, maple syrup and lemon juice to a medium saucepan on low heat. Heat gently and once the mixture is at a rolling boil, pour the dissolved cornflour in and stir until the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and layer over warm pancakes.