I celebrated this morning by making an amazing recipe we found in the Salt Lake Tribune a few months ago: Lemon-lovers' ricotta pancakes with blueberry sauce.
Ingredients:
Pancakes:
1 cup flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 cup ricotta cheese (or substitute either cottage cheese mixed with an egg yolk or--get this! I tried it this morning--equal parts yogurt and cream cheese! I tried vanilla yogurt with 2 or 3 ounces of cream cheese, and it was scrumptious)
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup lemon juice (A lot, I know)
2 t. grated lemon zest
1 T. oil
Blueberry sauce:
1 T. lemon juice
2 t. cornstarch
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 T. water
1/4 t. salt
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, mix ricotta, egg, egg whites, lemon juice, lemon zest and oil. Fold wet mixture into dry to make a thick batter.
Grease a frying pan or griddle and warm over medium-low heat. Measure out 1/4-cup of batter for each pancake. Cook and flip until bronwed on each side.
For the sauce, combine lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan, bring blueberries, sugar, water, and salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir in lemon juice/cornstarch mixture. Simmer, stirring, until sauce thickens (about 2 minutes).
Makes 5 servings
Also, for you Ivy Bake lovers, here's the recipe for Millenium Toffee Bars (we made these last night for the hard-working Elders Quorum guys--Jeff among them--who were helping a family move out of the ward). Read the directions carefully on this one. It has a lot of divided ingredients and layering and suchlike.
We didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I supplemented with Butterscotch chips. A highly recommended variation.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 3/4 cups toffee bits, divided
Directions:
Grease a 9x13-inch glass dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, butter, and brown sugar; add egg and mix well. Add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and nuts. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mixture. Press remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 8 minutes.
Remove from oven and pour sweetened condensed milk over mixture. Top with 1 1/2 cups toffee bits, the reserved crumb mixture, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Return to oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Cool before cutting, or just eat it with a spoon! Makes 12-16 servings.
