Cooking with Toti
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Lemon Ricotta Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Fluffy, soft pancakes with fresh lemon and dark chocolate — no refined sugar.
Serves
10–12 pancakes
Time
25 min
Fluffy, soft pancakes with fresh lemon zest, creamy ricotta, and dark chocolate chips. Sweetened only with maple syrup — no refined sugar — for a cozy weekend breakfast my kids ask for again and again.
Instructions
Make the batter
- 1
In a small bowl, mix the milk and lemon juice. Let it sit a few minutes to create a buttermilk-like mixture.
- 2
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
- 3
In another bowl, whisk eggs, ricotta, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth.
- 4
Add the milk mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.
- 5
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix with a hand whisk. Do not overmix — lumps are perfectly fine.
- 6
Fold in the dark chocolate chips.
Cook
- 1
Heat a pan over medium heat and add butter.
- 2
Scoop batter onto the pan and cook until bubbles form, then flip.
- 3
Cook until golden and fluffy. Serve warm.
Toti’s Tips
- ✓Mixing milk with lemon juice and letting it sit makes a quick homemade buttermilk — the acid slightly thickens the milk and reacts with the baking soda for extra lift.
- ✓Sweetening only with maple syrup instead of refined sugar keeps the batter from turning gritty or overly sweet against the tang of the lemon and ricotta.
- ✓Ricotta adds moisture and little pockets of creaminess that keep these pancakes soft, so don't substitute a dry cheese in its place.
- ✓Mix the batter gently and leave lumps — overworking it activates gluten and turns fluffy pancakes dense.
- ✓Cook on medium-low heat so the chocolate chips have time to soften and the inside cooks through before the outside gets too dark.
- ✓Fold the chocolate chips in last, right before cooking, so they don't melt into the batter and streak it instead of staying as chips.
More photos
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