These Blood Orange Ricotta Pancakes are silky, creamy and studded with bright orange zest. They’re topped with a fresh strawberry and blood orange sauce. A perfect weekend breakfast!
These pancakes. Oh my.
Last month, when I was down in Orange County, we ate breakfast at an amazing little restaurant called Haute Cakes Caffe. There were so many delicious things on the menu and it was such a hard decision, so we ended up ordering 3 breakfasts for 2 of us. Fat kid alert.
But seriously, we just couldn’t turn down their Orange Ricotta Pancakes with fresh berry sauce. They sounded so yummy.
You might remember I also had the most epic avocado toast of all time.
But the pancakes. Rarely are restaurant pancakes that outstanding. These were amazing. The creamy ricotta, the fresh orange. After only one bite I think I said “Ohhhhhh my gosh, I need to recreate these.” And they’ve been on my mind ever since. I had a bunch of strawberries from the local stand that were a little overripe and thought they’d be perfect for a strawberry sauce. And what’s better to top with fresh strawberry sauce than homemade pancakes!? It was time.
I decided to mix it up a bit and use blood oranges. Because they’re fun! You can really use any type of oranges in here, though. You could probably even try grapefruit or lemon!
The batter for these pancakes is a little thick, so you’ll want to cook them low and slow to cook them all the way through without burning. They’re worth the wait, I promise. To keep them warm while I’m finishing up the batch, I keep a baking sheet in the oven on the lowest setting, and transfer the pancakes to the baking sheet as they come out of the pan.
I used fresh strawberries in the sauce, but you could use some mixed berries if you’d prefer. And if berries aren’t in season, you could definitely use frozen berries here too.
- FOR THE PANCAKES:
- 1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp blood orange zest
- 2 tbsp blood orange juice
- ⅔ cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- FOR THE SAUCE:
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
- ¼ cup blood orange juice
- 1 tsp blood orange zest
- 2 tbsp sugar
- To make the sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until strawberries break down and liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes. (Note: if you start the sauce first, it will be done when the pancakes are done.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together ricotta, sugar, eggs, orange zest and juice. Add flour and baking powder and stir until well combined.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. (If the skillet is not non-stick, add some butter to the pan.)
- Ladle batter into the skillet and cook pancakes until edges are beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook an additional 3-4 minutes.
- Serve pancakes topped with warm strawberry sauce.
Just look at those layers of perfect pancakes. I froze my leftovers and they’ve reheated really well in the toaster oven.
Enjoy!
I am seriously swooning over how ultra-soft and fluffy these pancakes look! Blood orange and ricotta sound like they were MEANT to be together and oh, gosh that berry sauce is just the icing on the cake! Or the pancake. 😉 Love these, Jess!
Thanks, Sarah!! They were seriously AMAZING!! They’re going to be in the regular rotation for sure!
Wow! These look like some really flavorful pancakes! That strawberry sauce looks incredible!
Thanks, Christin! Nothing beats fresh in-season strawberries!!
I like your breakfast ordering style. Shawn and I do that sometimes too. We’ll both order something savory for breakfast, and then a waffle or stack of pancakes to share. Major fat kid alert! Haha! These pancakes are just amazing! The flavors sound delicious. And so pretty!
Wow! This flavor combo sounds incredible!
I’m loving these pancakes! I’ve been dying to make pancakes for the blog but for some dumb reason I’m scared { I need some pancake therapy } yours look so pretty and they are so unique! and your pictures are gorgeous 🙂
Pancakes are the best!! They’re pretty easy too… one of the first things I started cooking for myself in college, LOL. Don’t be scared!! 🙂
Oh my goodness…ricotta pancakes. Yes please. These sound soooooo good!
These pancakes are gorgeous, Jess! I love the ricotta and citrus flavors in here! I could just drink up that strawberry orange sauce all by itself, it sounds amazing!
Wow Jess! That’s almost all I can say is “wow”. Those are some amazing looking pancakes! I could totally go for a stack of those. Beautiful. Pinned!
Thanks, Kristi!! I was pretty happy with how pretty they turned out because they were so, so yummy, too!
I love the strawberry orange sauce on this! Those pancakes look so decadent!
These look incredible Jess!!! I need these in my life! 🙂
Thanks, Alyssa! They really were!!
These sounds fantastic! Great idea to make the entire batch of batter and freeze. I’m always worried they won’t work out and simply save any extra batter for the next day. But sometimes it just goes to waste.
I really love freezing pancakes, they are SO easy to toast up! <3