Food 52's Genius Currant Cottage Cheese Pancakes-Famous Fridays
Seriously, I don't know how we made it through the week! There's been a nasty little stomach bug plaguing pretty much my entire extended family and though we're all on the mend now, it's definitely left us feeling a little draggy and in need of some TLC. That's where these amazingly tender, delicate and lemony currant cottage cheese pancakes come in. They're comforting, satisfying and easy to make. They're also direct from the pages of the Food 52 Genius Cookbook by Kristen Miglore, my well deserving Famous Friday honoree this week. Please...we NEED the weekend now!!
Are a Food 52 fan? I just love their site! They have so many great recipes, trends, kitchen and home ideas etc. If you're not familiar with it, you've got to check it out now. So much greatness!! And that greatness continues in the Food 52 Genius Recipes Cookbook: 100 Recipes That Will Change The Way You Cook. It's compiled by Food 52 executive editor, Kristen Miglore and it's full of classic, amazing, home-chef friendly recipes by legendary cooks like Marcella Hazan, Yotam Ottolenghi, Alice Waters, Edna Lewis, James Beard, Nigella Lawson etc. and Deborah Madison (the originator of these pancakes, who I've already featured in Famous Fridays for her stupendous Winter Vegetable Chowder--really, try this over the winter sometime--you won't believe how fantastic a soup can be!!) If you're looking for a great holiday gift for someone who likes to cook, you can't go wrong with this book (ah, there's the lyricist in me!!)
I know you're probably thinking, cottage cheese? In pancakes? Yep. You don't taste it at all (or texture notice it either if you're a cc hater) and it's actually what gives these pancakes their unique fluffy texture. And now you're probably thinking, currants? Not blueberries? Yep, again! The currants add just the right amount of sweetness and texture without becoming mushy or bleeding through the pancake as blueberries often do. Rounding everything out is the subtle flavor of lemon which perfectly balances out the dusting of powdered sugar on top. These are sweet but not overly so. Kids might not adore them since there's no syrup to be had but I promise that you will love them!! Pancakes are not something that generally tempt me but these are the kind of thing I dream about on a Saturday night in the hopes of finding a container of cottage cheese in the fridge for a lazy Sunday morning brunch!
So...pick up a copy of Genius Recipes (and a container of cottage cheese) and have some fun in the kitchen this weekend. I'll see you next week with more holiday recipes (and some normal food too) as we head into the second week of December!! Yikes, better start that holiday shopping!!
Food 52's Genius Currant Cottage Cheese Pancakes-Famous Fridays
Yields 10-15 pancakes, depending on how large you make them
Prep Time: 10 minutes; Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried currants
- 1 cup cottage cheese, dry curd if possible
- 1 cup sour cream
- 5 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Unsalted butter for frying
- Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling on finished pancakes and wedges of lemon (optional)
The Recipe
1. Unless your currants are very soft, place them in a bowl and cover them with hot water to allow them to plump up. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the cottage cheese and sour cream together. One at a time, beat in the eggs, whisking well between each addition. Whisk in the vanilla, zest and sugar. Then add in the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together, only until there are no traces of flour visible. You don't want to over mix this. Drain the currants, blot them with a paper towel to dry them a bit more and add to the batter, gently folding them in.
3. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the butter is hot, ladle on small circles of the batter. Cook for a few minutes until the bottoms are golden brown and then use a spatula to flip the pancakes over to allow the other side to cook.
4. Serve immediately sprinkled with powdered sugar and repeat steps 1-3 until all of the batter is used up.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from the Food52 Genius Cookbook by Kristen Miglore, via Deborah Madison's recipe.
