WEEK 23: YOUR BEST PANCAKES

Lemony Cream Cheese Pancakes with Blueberries

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    BY ENUNN | SERVES 6

A&M: ENunn rightly noted, “A world without lemons would be a very sad one.” And for those who crave the purity of a plain pancake but occasionally find themselves wanting more, ENunn’s recipe might be the perfect compromise: lemon’s perfume (from both the juice and zest) permeates these light, fluffy buttermilk pancakes. The real magic lies in the addition of chunks of cream cheese, blended into the batter until they are reduced to about pea-size, resulting in salty, creamy pockets scattered throughout the cooked pancakes.

    1½ cups all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon sugar

    1 tablespoon baking powder

    ½ teaspoon baking soda

    Pinch of salt

    2 large eggs, separated

    1 cup buttermilk

    6 ounces cold cream cheese, cut up

    1 tablespoon melted butter, plus additional for the pan

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    2 tablespoons lemon juice

    Zest of 1 large lemon

    1½ cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

    Honey, maple syrup, or jam, for serving

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and buttermilk. Add the cream cheese and mix until it has separated into uniformly small lumps, about the size of large cottage cheese curds. Stir in the melted butter, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
2. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then stir to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold them gently into the batter.
3. Heat a griddle or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles. Lower the heat to medium and butter or oil the pan. Drop the batter into the pan by ¹/₃ cupfuls, making sure not to crowd the pancakes. Once the batter has spread, drop in the berries. (You might want to drizzle some batter over to cover them.) These need to be cooked a bit longer than you might expect; they won’t bubble as quickly or as much as plain pancakes. Turn down the heat if necessary to keep them from overbrowning, and let them puff up to their full extent after you turn them, which will take 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with honey or maple syrup or jam.

Photography by Sarah Shatz

    TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

    ENunn admitted that she also likes these pancakes plain. We think a swipe of salted butter never hurts.

        ChezSuzanne used homemade candied lemon zest, with great results. A few readers wondered whether these would be good with chocolate chips instead of blueberries—we say, why not?

    ABOUT THE COOK

    Emily Nunn is a former editor at The New Yorker and the Chicago Tribune. She currently lives in Chicago and works as a freelance writer and food blogger at Cook the Wolf (www.cookthewolf.blogspot.com). See her Faulknerian Family Spice Cake with Caramel Icing recipe.

        Her favorite recipe from a cookbook: “Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Sauce with Sausages, from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. She insists that you peel the peppers; the resulting dish is transportive and characteristically simple. I love her.”

    WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAID

    Melissav: “Made these a few weekends ago for breakfast and they were so good that I made another batch a few nights later for dinner!”