Lemon Ricotta pancakes

I must thank my friend Catherine for sending me the link to recipeshoebox.  I am trying 3 or 4 things from there this next week.  This is the first, and YUM!!!  Oh my.  I did adapt it slightly to use my full container of ricotta, proportionally I added more lemon as well.  The result was out of this world - past 5 star.  I loved them plain -no sauce.  Super delicious and honestly, they were very low fat, and I lightened the sugar.  The original recipe served them with a raspberry sauce that was just raspberries and sugar.  I made a raspberry sauce by halving my triple berry sauce recipe, and using only raspberries, but honestly, I preferred them plain.  I had eaten part of 1 before I got the sauce done, and I served myself 2 with sauce - I ended up eating 1 and giving the other to my son so I could eat one plain.  I did try that last one with a bit of lite cool whip on it.  That was good, but unnecessary for me.  The lemon flavor was so good that I just wanted to enjoy it.

 Here is how I adapted them

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz. container ricotta (I used fat free)
• 1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)
• 4 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup splenda
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (that is what the original called for, I didn't up it - I didn't measure, just poured an amount that seemed about that much, erring on the side of a bit more.)

Directions

1. Whisk together ricotta, milk, egg yolks, sugar, splenda, and the lemon zest and juice.
2. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. (You can combine these first as recipes usually tell you to.  I added my 2 cups of flour, then in my 1 cup measuring cup added 1/4 cup flour, the baking pwd and salt.  Stirred that together and added it to my mix.)
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.
4. Fold egg whites into the other mixture with a rubber spatula.
5. Bake on a griddle (I found between 350 and 375 worked well.  375 was a bit high, 350 a bit low.)  I like to flatten these a bit with the back of the cup I dish them with.  They don't bubble much like a regular pancake so keep an eye on them.  They are very nice and fluffy.

Yield: 32 pancakes for me.

Additional notes 5/26/2011 - subbed out 1/2 cup wheat flour - would have gone 1/2 and 1/2 but I only had 1/2 cup already ground and I didn't want to grind more.  I'm also planning to sub out Truvia for the splenda, but that will wait for next time.   I also updated the Yield - no idea why I had only 22.  Definitely makes 32 - using a 1/3 cup measuring cup (probably closer to 1/4 cup of actual batter per pancake with the stuff that sticks to the cup.  I just make 8 at a time on my griddle - the size that fits.)