Sunday Morning Sunshine

Fritelle di Ricotta, Mandorla, Mandarino & Miele

Almond, Mandarine Orange & Ricotta Pancakes with Honey

It's Sunday morning, I am feeling "a little under par" and I need something to put a smile on my face. Hmm... now, what could that something be? You guessed it- Pancakes!

At the same time, I am a little disappointed in the fact that I bought a batch of those kinds of mandarin oranges that look great- but are impossible to peel! You know the ones! So, the thought of destroying a couple of those at the same time gave me an opportunity to deal with some anger issues too! wink emoticon

I had thought of making some "crepes Suzette" maybe- or making some crepes and filling them with sweetened ricotta and a little orange syrup to pour over them... but... frankly, I was feeling pretty miserable and that all sounded too much like hard work... and so I made these here instead!

Clever me!

All I needed to make 7 little pancakes, (yes, I did eat one before I took my photos!), was: 1 egg, 2 mandarin oranges, 2 tablespoons of fresh ricotta, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon of ground almonds, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of honey.

Fluffy from the ricotta, tangy from the orange juice and delicious in all from the cinnamon and honey and simplicity of it all... what's not to love about these? I didn't even need a mixer to make them either as I was too lazy to beat up the egg whites... and they were STILL great! I love it when things work out well all the same- hehe!

I began my mixing together the ricotta, the ground almonds, the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and the zest and juice of 1 mandarin and whisking them into a relatively thick paste.

I then added the egg and 1 tablespoon of honey- not forgetting that little pinch of salt- and whisked it together into a smooth batter.

I let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes, for the baking powder to do it's thing... then grabbed my frying pan, added a pat of butter and got ready to get frying!

I kept my pancakes small- I prefer them that way, and fried them at a medium heat until little bubbles began to form in the batter.

I then carefully flipped them over to fry for 1-2 minutes more from the other side and then they were good to go! You will notice the dark outer edges- that is the orange juice and honey beginning to caramelize... all good stuff!

I then cut that bothersome peel right down from the remaining orange- which would otherwise have rendered it impossible (or at least damned messy!) to eat and cut out the little segments to add to the top of my pancakes... these, followed by that last tablespoon of honey, made them super-fruity and delicious!

I think you might just love them as much as I did!