Ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter and banana
This is the original fluffy ricotta hotcake, on the menu at the first bills, on the first day. In Japan, these were credited as the start of the trend for the cloud-like soufflé pancakes described as fluffy or fuwa fuwa – surely the world’s best onomatopoeia? Our Japanese kitchen teams have turned them into an art form and now we get letters from people wanting to train as dedicated ‘hotcake chefs’.
SERVES 6-8
PREPARATION TIME 35 minutes, plus cooling and chilling COOKING TIME about 45 minutes
FOR THE HONEYCOMB Light-flavoured oil, to grease 150g caster sugar
75g golden syrup
1½tsp bicarbonate of soda FOR THE HONEYCOMB BUTTER 250g unsalted butter, softened 2tbsp runny honey
90g honeycomb (above or shop-bought), crushed
FOR THE RICOTTA HOTCAKES 300g ricotta
175ml milk
4 eggs, separated
125g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
50g butter
TO SERVE
Icing sugar
1 banana, halved and sliced lengthways
1 To make honeycomb, lightly oil a 20cm cake tin. Put the sugar and syrup in a heavy-based pan over medium-low heat. Swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar, then stir with a spatula until all dissolved – this might take 10-15min, so be patient and do not let the mixture bubble at this stage. Turn up the heat, use a sugar thermometer, if you have one, and heat the mixture to 155˚C or until a dark amber caramel. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda until golden and foaming. Don’t over-stir: you want to retain as much air in the mix as possible. 2 Carefully pour into the tin. Leave to harden and cool for about 1hr 30min. Break into chunks and crush with a rolling pin. If you are making honeycomb butter, you will need ½ the amount, so store the rest in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. You can dip it in melted chocolate and sprinkle over ice cream. Or make double the amount of butter and freeze.
3 To make the honeycomb butter, blend the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Roll into a log, wrap in baking parchment and chill for 2hr.
4 To make the hotcakes, in a bowl, mix together the ricotta, milk and egg yolks. Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into another bowl. Add the ricotta mixture and stir to combine. Beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter in 2 batches with a large metal spoon. 5 Melt a little butter in a large, non-stick frying pan. Add 2tbsp of batter per hotcake, cooking in batches. Cook over low-medium heat for 2min, or until golden underneath. Turn and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Serve dusted with icing sugar, with sliced banana and honeycomb butter.
‘THESE FLUFFY, SOUFFLÉ RICOTTA PANCAKES ARE LIGHT AS A CLOUD’