Healthy Brunch

Featured Pro: Sam Talbot
Category: Cooking
Time: 6:35


SAM TALBOT: I’m sure everybody knows what a drag it can be to wake up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, unless, of course, you’re going to a killer brunch or, unless you’re like me, you want to cook a killer brunch.

So I’m going to show you guys how to make the ultimate lemon ricotta pancakes. These are a really heart-healthy alternative to your basic everyday pancakes. Everyday pancakes are high in carbs, high in fat, and definitely high in sugar. These guys are an awesome alternative. The whole wheat flour gives it really heart-healthy benefits. The almond milk really shines through, keeps it nice and light and airy. And then, of course, we have the ricotta cheese, which acts as a binding agent and gives us the “umph” that the pancakes really need.

So let’s dive right in. We’re going to mix our wet ingredients first. So we have a little bit of whole milk, about a cup; some lemon juice. Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m putting lemon juice into a pancake, but it gives the ultimate balance between sweet and savory – really heightens it and really cuts through the whole wheat flour and just gives it this nice vibrancy that you’re looking for, especially when it’s early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, right?

Now our almond milk, so we get all those heart-healthy enzymes and all those antioxidants from the almonds; a little bit of applesauce for our natural sweetener. All right, so we have our applesauce in there. Now we’re going to add a little bit of reduced-fat sour cream, some agave, which is a great alternative to processed refined sugar, of course, and then lemon zest, three egg yolks, and our whole-milk ricotta cheese. So we’re going to work out all the clumps, get this to a nice, smooth, velvety consistency. All right, perfect.

Now, for the next step, we’re going to mix our dry ingredients. So our whole-wheat flour can go right in the bowl; a little bit of truvia, which is made from stevia, also a natural sweetener, great alternative to sugar again; some baking soda and a little bit of baking powder.

All right, so now we have our dry ingredients. Here’s our wet ingredients. And now it’s time to whisk our egg whites to soft peaks. A little elbow grease never hurt anybody, right? Now we are going to mix our dry ingredients into our wet ingredients. So now we have everything incorporated. And the last and final step before we start cooking is our egg whites. So we’re just going to gently fold in our egg whites here.

So basically when you’re folding in the egg whites, you can see here that I’m going in through the bottom and just looping right over the top. We’re kind of enveloping it. When you’re folding the egg whites in like this, it incorporates air into the pancakes; makes it nice, fluffy, really airy. Our batter is mixed. We’re going to spray our pan with some pan coating spray. We’re just going to spoon our batter on.

Now, the trick that I like to do, even though we have a lot of room here to work with, I just like to make tiny little delicate pancakes – nothing too big, nothing too crazy, not overwhelming. I do, like, two or three at a time here, just enough to overcrowd.

I notice, when I’m making pancakes, I spend a lot of time adjusting the heat, just because, you know, they’re a delicate breed. You have to treat them with respect, very gentle. So use a delicate hand and just really monitor the heat. You don’t want to go too high, and obviously you don’t want to go too low. So it’s right on an even keel there. And then we’re just going to start to work it like you would an omelet, so loosen it from the nonstick grill here.

Now, you can see here in this first pancake, right in the middle there, the bubbles start to pop up. You can see them sort of burst there on the outside. That’s what you’re looking for. That’s sort of the key. That’s your sign to tell you, all right, we can start to begin to flip this in about 20 – 15, 20 seconds or so.

What I like to do before I flip it, as I’m loosening it, just kind of look under there, see if it’s browning, which it is very nicely. All right, so our back pancake is ready to flip, nice and golden brown. Our bubbles are up on this first one. You can see those bubbles popping. That’s my sign, so I can flip on this one. And notice, the ones on the two ends are cooking pretty evenly, pretty fast. The one in the middle, where there’s no heat, you’ve got to baby it a little bit.

The best part about cooking with these griddles like this is that if you mess up your flip or the batter breaks, you can take your spatula there, cut it off, and then once again you have these perfect restaurant-quality circular pancakes that no one ever knows that you broke your flip.

All right, so now our pancakes are finishing up here. We just have to plate these guys. Okay, now for the kicker. We’re going to top these guys with a whole fried egg. You know you're at brunch. You find yourself – wait a minute, do I do protein? Do I do sweet? Do I do savory? This dish puts it all to bed. You have everything you need right there.

We’re going to take a fried egg. You can scramble these eggs. You can poach these eggs. Personally, I just like it nice and simple, fried right on top. If you get a shell in there, just peel it out. Season it with a little bit of salt, some black pepper, of course, right on top here.

Now, the cool thing is about cooking in the same pan that we just cooked our pancakes, some of that batter can be left over, the nice crispy burnt ends. Who cares? It goes right into the egg. The egg’s going right on top; a little bit of fresh lemon juice, good to go. I keep the egg like this, sunny side up. So when you cut into it, you cut through that yolk. That yolk almost acts as a sauce and really elevates the pancakes. That lemon juice just brings it to the next level and it’s just a really completed, balanced dish.

All right, our egg is finished. It’s going to go right on top like that. And this final squeeze of lemon juice just brings it right over the top.

All right, so we have our pancakes. We have our fried egg on there. Let me grab a fork. Let’s do this. Oh, man, see, you can just tell, right when you break into that yolk, that’s what brings this whole dish together. It almost acts as a sauce, a nice savory sauce. The lemon’s in there with the yolk. Wow. The creaminess of the yolk, that really bright, vibrant lemon – this dish gives you something to wake up for.

I’m Sam Talbot. And remember, cook nice.