Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes with Date and Banana Butter

Warm, delightfully fluffy on the inside and lightly crunchy on the out. Sounding good already?

As a testament of how wonderful they truly are I’m going to confess to a little kitchen mis-hap: I burnt the first one. And eventhough it was pretty black on the outside, I just couldn’t resist but to eat the rest. You don’t often come across food that tastes good eventhough you’ve burnt the living daylights out of the first batch, do you? Imagine how good they are cooked to perfection.

I don’t make pancakes as often as I should, or at least, I’d like to. Mr Chipconnoisseur doesn’t eat them much, but I’ll definitely make these again and who knows, he might just want to jump on the breakfast pancake wagon. The recipe?

Borrowed from the $2 Gary Mehigan’s Comfort Food, a second in the mini series sold by newsagents across town as part of the Daily Telegraph’s / Sunday Telegraph’s Food Month . If you’ve missed out on the books (today is the last day), you may still be lucky to pick up a few random ones  – one of the city stores had Gary’s mini book as late as this week. Ask around. They are worth it and Gary’s is one of my favourites – it truly is full of warm and cosy comfort food ideas. Perfect for Winter.

Oh and when it comes to bananas, which are quite pricey in Australia at the moment, I buy mine from the “seconds” corner for a little over $3 a kilo, peel them and freeze in zip lock bags. They are great for smoothies and making instant banana mousse.

Makes 8

Fluffy ricotta pancakes with date and banana butter

The recipe comes from Gary Mehigan’s Comfort Food cookbook. I have adapted it by making the date and banana butter without the butter.

Pancakes

• 250g self-raising flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 25g unsalted butter
• 75g ricotta (recipe says firm, but I used creamy)
• pinch of salt
• vegetable oil for frying

Date banana butter

• 4 fresh dates, pitted
• 1 banana, peeled

Pancakes: sift the flour into a bowl. Add salt and sugar. Mix milk and egg in a measuring jug and add to the flour, whisking until there are no lumps. Melt butter in a small pan until it bubbles and becomes lightly brown. Add melted hot butter to the batter and whisk to combine, then add ricotta and mix to combine – some lumps may remain, but that’s perfectly ok.

Heat a little oil in a heavy-based pan over medium heat. Add a ladleful of batter to the pan and cook for 3 minutes or until air bubbles become visible on the top. Flip the pancake and cook on the other side for a further 3-4 minutes or until nice and golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Date and banana butter: using a stick blender, whizz bananas and dates until light and creamy.

Serving: serve pancakes warm with a good spoonful of the banana and date topping.

Note: pancakes will keep in the fridge for a couple of days – just cover them with cling film. Reheat in a lightly oiled pan or in the microwave for about 30 seconds.