My roommates officially think I'm crazy.
I'm currently living in an Airbnb with two close friends for the summer while we transition apartments. The previous Airbnb was super cute, but the kitchen was lacking: a hot plate, mini fridge, and a toaster oven were all we had to work with for two weeks. This second place at least has a full kitchen and boasts around 20 different pots and skillets; but oddly at the same time, it has almost no other kitchen tools. And so the improvising begins.
The other day I made a delicious jar of homemade lemon curd--gold, I tell you!--and obviously, I had to make something worthy of spreading such a delicacy on.
Enter, ricotta pancakes. Light, tender, melt-in-your-mouth good. An ideal vessel for lemon curd.
I had all the ingredients except ricotta, which I promptly bought. That night, lying in bed dreaming about the pancakes, I suddenly panicked. What makes the pancakes so light and tender? Whipped egg whites. And not simply whipped, but whipped to stiff peaks. Oh no.
No stand mixer. No handheld blender. Not even a whisk.
The next evening, I assessed the kitchen situation. I would have to whisk the egg whites by hand...with a fork. And with a blender bottle insert held with tongs. Oi.
I separated the eggs, let them come to room temperature, and added cream of tartar to give myself as much of an advantage as possible.
Then I began to whip. And whip. And whip.
It was hard work, but I did see progress. After 10 minutes, the egg whites were not only frothy, but starting to gain some volume.
And then they didn't. They started to deflate. That was when I realized that the back of the fork was hitting the egg whites and deflating the poor, delicate things!
I switched to the blender bottle-tong contraption. Definitely not ideal. But after 20 more minutes of whipping as fast and hard as I could, switching hands when needed, I had soft peaks! Good enough for me--it was 80ยบ in the kitchen, with no AC.
From there it was smooth sailing, and I cooked up a whole pile of pancakes to eat in the following mornings. I was relieved they tasted good after all that hard work!
If you're interested in these recipes, here are the ones I used (I highly recommend NOT whipping the egg whites by hand haha):
Ricotta Pancakes from Food 52
https://food52.com/recipes/24533-cottage-cheese-pancakes-with-creme-fraiche-and-seasonal-fruit
Lemon Curd from Sally's Baking Addiction
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/how-to-make-lemon-curd/
