Bill's ricotta hotcakes

Yes, these are Bill Granger's famous ricotta hotcakes that he serves in his Bills restaurants with banana and honeycomb butter. Yum!

I often cook these hotcakes -  not just for special occasion breakfasts, I also precook the whole batch ready to go in the fridge. It makes for quick school mornings, warming them in little toaster bags* (you can buy online), or a quick grill. They have no sugar (apart from what you add on top of course), some dairy and protein,  and are a nice change from cereal or toast. They are also a birthday breakfast favourite. To note they are way better cooked fresh as they are so puffy and light, but they still reheat so well for batch up cooking.

Bill’s ricotta hotcakes

1 1/3 cup ricotta

¾ cup (6 fl oz) milk

4 eggs, separated

1 cup plan flour

1 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

50g ( 1 ½ oz) butter

You will need three bowls, one large enough for incorporating the final batter, one for the dry ingredients and one large enough to whisk egg whites.

In the first large bowl – mix ricotta, mil end egg yolks til smooth.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and add to the ricotta mix – mixing til smooth. I use the same whisk and often just add the dry ingredients straight into this bowl skipping the sifting and it still works well.

It is important you have a clean, dry bowl for the egg whites as any traces of fat (like a little egg yolk) will prevent them from fluffing up well. Whish til stiff peaks, then fold in two batches into the ricotta mix with a large flat spoon or large spatula.

You can store the batter in the fridge for up to 24 hours at this stage which I often do ready for a post party night breakfast or early birthday morning. 

I have purposely bought a crepe pan we only use for pancakes and pikelets like these which I do recommend investing in – importantly use a non-stick frying pan. Once warmed add a portion of the butter to grease the pan, drop maximum two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan in batches of three – cook over low – medium heat for two minutes or until the undersides are golden. Turn them over until the other sides are golden and the hotcakes are cooked through.

Serve quickly with your favourite ingredients – we love maple syrup and berries. Bill’s classic is with sliced banana and honeycomb butter (250g unsalted butter blended with 100g crushed honeycomb and 2 tbsp honey – this can be stored as a wrapped up roll in the freezer to note)

Serves 6 - 8

* Pictured : toaster bags