Fluffy Puffy Pancakes

Last week, a reader emailed me via SusanMallery.com to share a recipe for pancakes that she said are “melt-in-your-mouth good.” So good, in fact, that her boys hover in the kitchen chanting, “Are they done yet? Are they done yet?”

Sounds like a great excuse for breakfast for dinner to me! (I only have pancakes for breakfast when we go to a restaurant. I’m not nearly energetic enough to cook until at least 3 pm. I need coffee, more coffee, and lunch before I can think about doing anything that involves mixing. Even then, it’s hit or miss.)

Recipe: Fluffy Puffy Pancakes

4 eggs – separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the griddle to 375 degrees. Whip the egg whites until they’re stiff, then set aside. Beat the egg yolks with the vanilla, cottage cheese, and sour cream. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until moist, then fold in the egg whites. Pour four-inch pancakes on the hot griddle. Keep warm in the oven.

Yield: 11 four-inch pancakes, plus one half-inch pancake for Nikki, my toy poodle

When I saw the list of ingredients, I was skeptical. (Sorry, Coleen!) Four eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, and vanilla seemed like a lot of wet stuff when compared to less than a cup of flour. But I soldiered on, regardless.

I whipped up the egg whites with an electric mixer. I have no knack for wrist action with a whisk. If I ever appear on a TV cooking show, they’ll have to use a stunt double for the whisk segments. If I’d had two bowls with my KitchenAid, I would’ve used the electric mixer for the other parts, too. I’m a somewhat lazy cook, though, and I had to weigh the amount of effort of mixing by hand against the amount of effort of pouring the egg whites into a separate bowl. I mixed the rest by hand.

I realize today that I forgot the vanilla. That’s not as bad as it could’ve been – I almost forgot the sugar and the salt. I’m pretty sure some mysterious chemical reaction would’ve failed to take place without those two ingredients. In my defense, I was watching HGTV at the time, and I can’t be expected to focus on cooking when I’m trying to figure out which home the House Hunters will choose.

Fortunately, the pancakes were delicious even without the vanilla. “Melt-in-your-mouth” is a terrific description. Because of the stiffened egg whites and the wet-stuff to dry-stuff ratio, the pancakes felt almost fizzy on my tongue. Little pockets of air popped when I pressed the pancake to the roof of my mouth. (Yes, I play with my food.)

The sour cream and cottage cheese gave the pancakes an ever-so-slight tartness, which contrasted nicely to the sweetness of the maple syrup. I had real maple syrup because I ate these on Canada Day and wanted to give a nod to my northern friends.

Yum! Thanks, Coleen! Don’t they look pretty?