Passport & Plate - Roll'em Ups
USA | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Sweetened Homemade Ricotta:
6 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp white vinegar
½ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp vanilla
Pancake Syrup:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup of fruit preserves (I prefer berry preserves with seeds, but you can use any variety or use this as an opportunity to clean out the fridge of any jam or jellies)
½ cup real maple syrup
Pancakes:
1 cup sifted flour
2 1/8 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter (plus more for grilling the pancakes)
Cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar for dusting
How to prepare this recipeSweetened Homemade Ricotta:
Place a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl and line the strainer with layers of cheesecloth. In a medium saucepan bring the milk, heavy cream, vinegar and salt to a simmer over low heat. Continue to simmer for 3 minutes. Pour the whey and curds over the cheesecloth and leave to strain for 20 minutes. Ring the cheesecloth to remove any excess liquid then scrape the ricotta into a clean bowl. (From here you can set some cheese aside and sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil. Serve with crusty Italian bread for an irresistible snack!) Fold the sugar and vanilla into the ricotta and set aside.
Pancake Syrup:
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer over low heat until the butter melts.
Pancakes:
Begin by combining the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and melted butter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly and whisk to combine. The batter should be fairly thin, like a crepe batter. Transfer the batter to a container with a handle and spout for easy pouring. Heat a griddle (to test if it is hot enough get your hands wet and flick the water onto the griddle. If the water “dances” on the surface it is ready). Generously butter the griddle and gently pour the batter to form palm-sized pancakes. When air bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes, they are ready to flip. Cook until both sides are golden brown and keep in a warm oven while you cook the remaining batter.
To Assemble Roll’em Ups:
Spread a tablespoon of the sweetened ricotta on a pancake and pour a tablespoon of pancake syrup on top. Roll the pancake on itself and top with both cinnamon sugar and sifted powder sugar. Enjoy!
The story behind this recipeMormor’s pancakes, Poppy’s syrup and fresh ricotta combine to make this version of my family’s favorite breakfast–“Roll’em Ups”. Mormor (Danish for “mother’s mother”) and Poppy had 13 children for whom they made everything homemade. Mormor prepared meals never lacking in us Scandinavians’ favorite ingredient, butter. Her famous pancakes were no exception. Nothing like a diner’s “mattress pads”, as Poppy called them, Mormor’s pancakes are thin, crispy and of course, buttery. Poppy worked hard as a color separator on Wall Street, but every Sunday morning at their home in Carmel, NY he made crepes filled with his signature syrup, rolled up and covered with cinnamon sugar.
My mom passed the love of creating and sharing food unto me from a very young age. I read cookbooks, watched food TV and always kept the kitchen clean. When I was a teenager I saw Jacques Pépin and his daughter sandwich graham crackers, sweetened ricotta, warm preserves and fresh berries to make a quick, elegant dessert. This inspired me to make cheese for the first time and use it to update a family classic.
Later, in college I traveled internationally for the first time to complete a semester in Florence, Italy. I stayed with a well off Italian family who staffed a live-in cook! Dinner was always breathtaking, but I craved the feeling of hosting a meal. One night for dessert I prepared Roll’em Ups and was elated to bring a bit of my passion across the world to my new family.
After college I got my first job playing an opera festival in Utah, all the way across the country from my home in New York. I invited the whole orchestra to my apartment (equipped with thrift shop pots and plastic supermarket kitchen utensils) for breakfast. I greeted my colleagues with a cup of coffee and then ran back to the stove to grill another batch of pancakes. I was truly at home working in the kitchen while listening to new friends laughing, chatting and commemorating over a plate of my grandparent’s Roll’em Ups.
