If you’re looking for an easy pancake recipe without milk, these lemon ricotta pancakes with caramelized blueberries just might change your life. Check out this easy pancake recipe and get some food photography tips from my photo shoot.
This post contains affiliate links. Read the affiliate disclosure.
Food Photography Tips for Pancakes
Practice Different Food Photography Angles
Overhead or flatlay shots are very popular in food photography, but when it comes to certain foods like pancakes, sometimes overhead shots aren’t the most successful viewpoint. If you shoot pancakes at an overhead angle, you won’t get to see anything except the top.
For foods that are stacked, like pancakes, shooting at a straight on angle might be more effective. You’ll get to see them stacked up, which gives them a more heroic appearance. And, you could even try to capture a gooey drop of syrup down the side. Those kinds of appetizing details are more attention-getting for people, because they make people feel hungry.
Use A Good Macro Lens
A macro lens is very helpful for capturing food photography details up close with incredible sharpness. Not all lenses will let you get that close to the food without compromising the image quality, so a macro lens is something to consider to improve your food photography skills.
For this shoot, I used my Nikon 105mm 2.8 macro lens. What do you think about that gooey, maple syrup drip?!
READ MORE ABOUT: THE BEST LENSES FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes Without Milk
I originally found this recipe on Food & Wine which featured a lemon ricotta pancakes with caramelized apples recipe, so I decided to make a few adjustments of my own.
For this pancake recipe, I used whole wheat flour instead of regular flour and blueberries instead of apples. Believe it or not, I find the whole wheat flour to be more flavorful than regular flour. And, Mike prefers blueberries to apples, so I made that switch for him.
A lot of pancake recipes call for milk, but I made this easy pancake recipe with almond milk. I try to create more dairy-free recipes since I have a sensitivity to dairy, but you can easily use regular milk if you prefer. I can tell you that regardless of if you use regular milk or almond milk, the pancakes will turn out fluffy and delicious.
The final note I want to add is that I added extra lemon zest to this recipe. I really wanted the lemon flavor to shine through the sweetness of the caramelized blueberries. Caramlized blueberries are very sweet, so adding extra lemon zest gives the balances the flavors nicely.
Be sure to let me know if you try the recipe!
Happy Cooking!
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: WHOLE WHEAT RASPBERRY PANCAKES
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Caramelized Blueberries Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pint of blueberries
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
- Kosher salt
- 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1-1/2 cups almond milk
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
- Optional: Maple syrup, for serving
Instructions
- In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.
- Add blueberries, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest and a pinch of salt.
- Cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Keep warm.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour and baking powder with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the milk with the egg yolks, ricotta and the remaining 3/4 tablespoon of lemon zest.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to create the batter.
- In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the batter.
- Preheat a pan and grease with butter.
- Scoop 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan.
- Cook over moderately high heat until bubbles appear around the edges, about a minute.
- Flip and cook until the pancakes are golden brown and transfer to plates.
- Drizzle with caramelized blueberries and add maple syrup, if desired.
Notes
Adapted from Food & Wine.
This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click or make a purchase through my site, I might make a small commission (at no extra cost to you). I only promote products and equipment that I actually use for my photography business. Your support helps me continue to produce educational content about photography. Thank you!
All images © Regan Baroni 2014.
I just stumbled across your blog! You pictures are mouth-watering and I want to make these pancakes immediately!
Hi Rachel! Thanks so much for the compliments and for commenting! Enjoy!
-Regan
It looks so good that I want to lick my screen.