Joanne Nichols of Arbor Inn Bed & Breakfast has won the BedandBreakfast.com Pancakes with Personality Contest. Her entry, Lemon Buttermilk Ricotta Cheese Pancakes, won at the finals held at the Three Chimney’s Inn, in Durham, NH.

Oddly enough, the two finalists in the contest were both from New Hampshire, even though the contest was held nationally. The runner-up was Cyndi Cobb of the Colby Hill Inn in Henniker, NH. The Arbor Inn B & B is also located in New Hampshire, in Rye. Must be good cooks come from New England!

Joanne’s recipe sounds delicious – I can’t wait to try it.

Here’s the recipe:

Lemon Buttermilk Ricotta Cheese Pancakes with fresh berries and Sweet Lemon Sauce

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 T. granular sugar
1 teas. baking powder
½ teas. baking soda
½ teas salt
2 large eggs separated
2 T. vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
½ cup ricotta cheese
¼ cup orange juice
1 teas. lemon extract
1 T. lemon zest
2 cups of assorted fresh berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cut strawberries) use any or just one type of berry.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl combine the egg yolks, oil, buttermilk, ricotta cheese, orange juice and lemon extract. Whisk together until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture. Mix together until flour is just incorporated. Sprinkle top of batter with lemon zest. In a small stainless steel bowl, beat egg whites just until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the batter just until incorporated. Let set for 10 to 15 minutes. While batter is setting up, make your lemon sauce.

Sweetened Lemon Sauce:

1 cup granular sugar
½ cup salted sweet cream butter
¼ cup water
1 large egg yolk
1 T. lemon zest
3 T. fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized stainless steel sauce pan stirring constantly until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved on medium heat. Bring sauce to a boil uncovered and lower the temperature for one to two minutes. Remove from heat and let set, keeping warm until ready to serve.

Butter large skillet and warm on medium to low flame or low heat. When butter begins to bubble, carefully drop batter on hot skillet approximately ¼ to ½ cup per pancake. Let the pancakes rise on the pan slightly then place assorted berries on top of each pancake pressing slightly into the batter. Once bottoms begin to brown, turn pancakes over to finish cooking just until lightly browned. Place finished pancakes on a large platter and top each with sweet cream butter, powdered sugar and pour warmed lemon sauce over the top. Garnish with fresh strawberries or berries of choice or lemon wedges. Makes approximately 15 pancakes.

Tips: While mixing the batter, only mix together the ingredients just until the flour is mixed in. Do not over mix as this will make your pancakes tough in texture. Once you have folded in the egg whites, again do not over mix. The egg whites separated and beaten until stiff prior to adding to the batter will help insure your batter will be lighter in texture. Never heat your pan at a high or medium high temperature. The batter will be undercooked in the middle when pancakes need to be turned. Be patient and do cook these pancakes slowly to keep them delicate and delicious.

Joanne's book, The Arbor Inn Cookbook,will be released this spring.

"The cookbook includes many recipes that I have created or collected from the days of my catering business, restaurant, bakery/cafe and the Arbor Inn," Joanne said. "It will also include recipes from our new bakery Blasphemy's Bakery (just a little wicked) at Bakery.




Resources

Visit the Arbor Inn B & B website at Arbor Hill Inn.

For more information on the Colby Hill Inn, click over to Colby Hill Inn.