Pancake Tuesday: The higher protein version

It's Shrove Tuesday and do you know where your pancakes are? Shrove Tuesday is the English form of Mardi Gras Tuesday, the last day of festivities before Lent. Instead of a King's Cake, the English celebrate with stacks of pancakes. The English version of a pancake is closer to what we would call a crepe, but this has not deterred good American Episcopalians and some Methodists and Lutherans from making stacks of fluffy American-style flapjacks to commemorate the day.

Since I seem to  attend the one Episcopal church in existence that doesn't make pancakes today (we throw a Mari Gras party instead, go figure) I decided to make them at home. A single pancake of significant size has 60 grams of non-fiber carbohydrate. That's actually quite a bit before adding (real) maple syrup. There is something unutterably sad about eating only one pancake so I decided to look for ways to increase the protein ratio.

Nigella Lawson has a recipe for "Cheesecakelets," which are basically cottage cheese pancakes lightened up with whipped egg whites and served English-style with lemon juice instead of maple syrup. Cottage cheese and lemon seemed promising. With this recipe in mind, I worked on getting as much of the refined carbohydrate out of the pancake as possible, while avoiding weird synthetic ingredients (there is no Splenda in my kitchen, thank you) and keeping good flavor.

It turns out you can make tasty little pancakelets with only 1/2 oz of flour (about 2 tablespoons). There is some sugar already in the cream cheese, cottage cheese, and vanilla so I added just a teaspoon more (instead of 2 T) to balance out the tang and provide good browning. I also found I much preferred the silken texture of cream cheese to using all cottage cheese. If you have one but not the other, you can substitute for the remainder (1 c. cream cheese or 1 c. cottage cheese). The rest of the recipe remains the same.

With less flour to provide structure, it is imperative to make very small pancakes (about 2") so that they will flip easily. Try a few and you will see how it goes. I threw in a few blueberries thinking it wouldn't work because the pancakelets were so thin, but they turned out beautifully. Blueberries, lemon, and cheese...yum!


 High Protein Cheesecakelets

3 eggs, separated
1 t. sugar
2 T flour (1/2 oz)
1/2 c. cottage cheese (generous)
1/2 c. cream cheese (generous, you may want to soften it for a few seconds in the microwave)
1 T vanilla
lemon wedges
blueberries

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until a thick layer of white foam forms, by hand for about one minute or about 10-20 seconds with a mixer. Do not underbeat. You can achieve this with a fork, but it will go considerably faster with a whisk.

Combine egg yolks with sugar and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla, both cheeses, and flour and stir until just combined. Fold in egg whites.*

Heat 10-12" pan over medium/medium-low heat with a dash of oil and a slip of butter (butter is optional but nice and the oil helps keep it from burning) for several minutes while finishing up the batter.

When you flick a bead of water on the pan and it sizzles nicely, spoon out small dollops of batter on the hot pan. You want them to be about 2" in diameter with a little room to spread out. If you are using blueberries, gently sprinkle blueberries over each pancake.

Let them cook a little longer before flipping than regular pancakes, until the batter on top loses most of its shine and is quite bubbly. The eggs in the batter need to really set to provide structure. If you try to turn one and it falls apart, let the others cook for a minute or two longer (this is why you are keeping the heat low).

Turn the pancakelets and cook until they are nicely browned on both sides and the middles are reasonably firm. Remove to a warm plate and squeeze lemon juice over the top. Try one to see how you are doing with getting the middles set (should not be gluey, but there may be some nice melty cheese). If the flavor is not to your liking, you can easily add another spoonful of sugar and flour to the batter before making the next batch.



*Folding sometimes worries people unnecessarily. This is a pancake, not a genoise; you won't go wrong. Pour the egg whites/foam into the yolk mixture. Use the whisk or a spatula to gently bring the yolk mixture over and around the whites in slow circular motions so that they gradually come together. Or, if this seems too complicated, just stir them gently together and all will be well.