Orange Ricotta Hotcakes

As of next Tuesday I'm embarking on a 12-day detox diet. It doesn't in any way involve starvation, just the cutting out of certain foods and drinks.

So I'm considering this week as a bit of a 'last hurrah' and I'm enjoying all the things on my detox 'not allowed' list. The list being yeast, alcohol, flour, dairy, sugar and tropical fruits.

This brings me to detox no-no number one -- orange and ricotta hotcakes. Small in size but not in flavour, these mini hotcakes are infused with cinnamon, orange zest and oozings of fresh ricotta. The hotcakes themselves are made of a mixture of finely ground corn flour (corn meal), unbleached flour, Castor sugar, milk and eggs. The syrup is simply a combination of honey, water and orange zest boiled with a vanilla bean. The mingling of citrus and vanilla is intoxicating and only becomes stronger as the syrup heats up.

The addition of ricotta is delightful and results in a light, moist hotcake. The trick to adding the ricotta, is to very gently fold it into the hotcake batter, making sure that there are noticeable ricotta lumps in it.  Just don't over mix, although I'm sure if you did, it'd be ok.

I had some leftover batter and I couldn't resist making some 'mini-minis'.

Someone has to feed the hotcake fairies.

Orange Ricotta Hotcakes Recipe
(Serves 4) Adapted from Cuisine.co.nz

Orange Honey Syrup

1 cup liquid honey
1/2 cup water
1 vanilla pod
Zest of 1/2 an orange

Hotcakes

1/4 cup fine corn flour/meal
1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup flour
1/4 cup Castor sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbs butter, melted
1 cup of ricotta
Zest of 1/2 an orange
Bananas or berries for serving (optional)

Method:

1. Place honey, water, vanilla pod and zest of 1/2 an orange in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, switch off and allow to cool a little. Discard vanilla pod. (Rinse, dry and reuse.)
2. Pour boiling water over corn flour/meal and rest for 5 minutes.
3. Sift dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Whisk eggs and milk together into dry ingredients. Add melted butter and wet corn flour/meal to the batter and whisk again. Gently fold through the ricotta and orange zest.
4. Heat up and lightly butter a heavy-based pan or griddle iron. Cook small ladles of the batter on a low to medium heat, 2 or 3 at a time.
5. Wipe the pan lightly with butter in between batches. Turn each hotcake once bubbles form on the surface and cook until firm, about 2 minutes per side. Keep hotcakes warm in the oven while cooking further batches.
6. Serve in stacks of 2 or 3 with fresh fruit such as bananas or berries. Spoon over honey orange syrup.

Comments

[VeggieGirl]

Oooh, a stack of scrumptiousness!! Love the mini/short stack as well - too cute!! :-D

Good luck with the detox!!

[[eatingclub] vancouver]

Those mini-minis are too cute! And their bigger siblings are just way too gorgeous. And oh, if you're ever going to write about the detox diet, I'd be interested in that too. Thanks.

[tennen-parman]

Hi, I am Tennen-Perman,E-mail from Japan.
I visited your site sometimes so far.
You have a cool site.
I linked your site in my blog.
I administer a blog talking about cooking.
Please link to my site in your ones if you like it.

http://impact-cook.blogspot.com/

thank you!

[Eunice]

Would you haappen to know that you have one of the most mouth watering pictures contained in this blog ON THE PLANET?

You do! Great photography and oh so dangerously yummy pancakes! I am on a detox too - although yoghurt is part of it. Not sure about that, but apparently it contains very helpful bacteria.

I'm so hungry! And it's all your fault!

Thank you. :D

[Manggy]

Omigosh, you have FAR, FAR more self-control than I do. Especially if I had to look at these pictures every day... Good luck with the diet!
That finish on the hotcakes is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen :)

[Derm]

It looks soooooo good. Thank you for sharing something so wonderfully good with us. Btw, may I know what brand and type of camera you use to take your food? The angle and everything looks so professional!

[flowercarole]

These look and sound delicious. Thank you for sharing.

[Patricia Scarpin]

Those mini hotcakes are the most adorable things ever, Syrie!
I have been on a diet. Forever, to be more precise. ;)

[Ivy]

Awe!The widdle pancakes are sooo cuuute!

[Micha]

I'm totally drooling. This will have to get worked into our Sunday Brunch lineup!

[dawn]

Mini pancakes are adorable.
Please keep us posted on the detox....I know I would love to hear about your daily steps as I've been thinking on doing this myself. I hear it's very hard, but very good for your vital organs to cleanse themselves.

[stef]

This sounds fantastic! I'm going to have to try them soon!

[Heidi / Savory Tv]

Gorgeous photos and your recipe sounds decadent! Thank you for sharing it :)

[Syrie]

Thanks Veggiegirl. I'll keep you posted. This is my last weekend of food fun!

Thanks eatingclub, yes the little ones were very sweet! I'll definitely keep you posted on the detox. I'm doing the Wild Rose one which is available at capers.

Thanks for linking to me Tennen-Parman, Looking forward to checking out your site.

Sorry Eunice...interesting about the yogurt. I'll check out your site to read more about it. Good luck!

Mark, you're too lovely. Thank you.

Thanks Derm. I tried to email you but the email bounced. I use a Nikon D50 and for this particular shot I used my macro lense. It's been my best investment yet! I also bought a tripod which proves invaluable in the fading afternoon light.

Thanks for visiting Flowercarole! Glad you like it.

Hi Patricia. Thank you! Well at least you get to enjoy all your amazing baking...or it is your lucky hubby who eats it all!

Hi Ivy. Yes tiny little Ps!

Hope you like them Micha. I'm going to make them again this weekend for my last supper!

Hi Dawn, will do and glad your interested. I've made a daily menu and am going to see how I can upload it on my site.

Thanks Stef!Hope you like them!

Thanks so much for visiting Heidi!

[Rasa Malaysia]

Too cute. Posting your guest post now...

[_ts of [eatingclub] vancouver]

Long, Long time ago, my favorite work-related task was making tiny, tiny pancakes. =)

[Hillary]

These pancakes are so cute and light and sound delicious! Very creative ingredient combination! :)

[Julia]

These look and sound divine. I can't wait to try them.

[arfi]

Hi Syrie,

what a gorgeous stack of hotcakes! My mother-in-law will love this drizzled with a syrup like that. I like it with creme de cassis with lots of fresh fruits hehehe... Lovely to find your blog. I'll add you to my blogroll link.

Cheers,
ab

[ThePurpleFoodie]

Hey Syrie! My first time around her and I'm loving your blog. Have gone through the two pages already. Beautiful photographs make me want to continue to dig into the archives. Just gorgeous!