Lemon Ricotta Pancakes {dairy free}

 Spring Break starts in an hour and I am so excited!  I spent the morning helping out with the school Bunny Hop and with my kids and I had so much fun!  The weather was so springy with the cool morning breeze and the post rain-y air and it just makes me so happy!  But before I go pick up those crazy kids of mine, let's talk about the perfect way to start your weekend, or in our case Spring Break. 

First off, lemons. 

They sort of just scream spring, right?  Every time I go pick lemons off our tree, I think more grow, because we can't get rid of them quick enough!  So I tend to make lemon everything this time of year. A little side bar:  our lemon tree peaks in January, which is winter.  But lemons and lemonade are always tied to Spring and Summer.  Think on that for a minute.  Okay, I know that the are other varieties that produce lemons in the summer.  Anywhoo, lemons are awesome and we should use them as much as possible. 

Second, non dairy!

I've always wanted to make lemon ricotta pancakes, but never have because chances are they would make me sick.  Thankfully, Kite Hill makes the best Ricotta out of almond milk and it tastes JUST LIKE regular ricotta.  My husband can't tell the difference.  It's definitely not the cheapest thing you could buy, but I have yet to see any other company making one.  Also, I feel like I should say, Kite Hill is totally not paying me anything to write this post.  I just am super impressed with their products!  They make this dairy missing girl so happy (and my son, too!).  Last night, my son asked me why God made him allergic to soy and milk and we had a long talk.  But it's questions like that that make me so happy that we live in a day and age where there are delicious alternatives to the things that make us sick.  I am so thankful for people who had the creativity to try making dairy alternatives out of almonds.

  I had some ricotta leftover from when I made this pasta a few months ago and I had the perfect amount for this recipe.  Some recipes took a horrible amount and maybe they made more pancakes, but I just needed a few for a fun before school breakfast for the kiddos and so the recipe I adapted from was perfect.  Plus, they were completely drool worthy.  They were so soft and tasted like the melted in your mouth.  Weston devoured them up and asked for seconds. . . and thirds.  I even froze some for later, and he ate all those a few weeks later!  I will probably make some more using my waffle stick pan so we can just freeze a bunch!  Now that  I think about it, these would probably be perfect for Easter breakfast! 

So go grab your grocery list so you can also enjoy these pancakes.  If you don't care about being non dairy (and that's okay. . . I'm kind of jealous!), you can go back to the original post or just substitute real ricotta and real milk (I think whole is the best for baking) instead of the dairy ingredients. 

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes {Dairy Free}
adapted from grand-babycakes.com

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3 Tbsp sugar
zest from one lemon
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup Kite Hill Ricotta*
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp melted butter

Directions:
Put sugar in a small bowl and add zest to it.  Carefully massage the lemon zest into the sugar.  This brings out the sweetness of the lemon a little bit more.  Add the sugar-zest to a mixing bowl and add the rest of your dry ingredients.  add the rest of your ingredients and carefully mix together.  This is definitely one of those recipes, you want to stop stirring when it is all combined. 

Grease a large skillet and heat over medium high.  Pour batter into pan and cook until golden brown, then flip over and continue cooking until equally golden brown.  Keep doing this until all your batter is gone.  Serve by dusting with some powdered sugar and lemon zest and maybe even some maple syrup. 

*You can find Kite Hill Ricotta at your nearest Whole Foods.