Ricotta and cinnamon pancakes with raspberry sauce and pomegranate

A glorious and festive dessert our friends loved (and downed within some 15 minutes). Almost as festive and posh-looking as a cake, but without all the trouble. I must admit I'm quite proud of the ingenious pancake dough - combined with ricotta and cinnamon to make it taste warm and fluffy - and also of the general combination with the sweet sauce and the tangy freshness of pomegranate. Also, I think it looks hot. Enjoy :).

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 liter of milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 125-140 g wheat flour (depends what consistency you want, and anyway it's added by the spoonful - a little at a time)
• 125 g ricotta cheese
• a sprinkle of salt
• some cooking oil (we used sunflower kernel oil)
• 1 medium pomegranate
• 200 g raspberry syrup (store-bought as dessert topping or easily made by boiling water, sugar and raspberries in equal quantities until thickened)

Get a deep-bottomed little pot and put an egg and the sprinkle of salt in it. Mix well:

Afterwards, add 1-2 tablespoons of wheat and slowly incorporate them:

Add the next egg and mix it in:

Repeat previous procedure with another 2 tablespoons of wheat flour. Then, add the next egg:

And then more flour and so on. When all 4 eggs are in and the mixture is pretty fluid but thick enough to not accept more flour, it should look like this:

Next, add a little milk (about 100 ml at a time):

Mix until incorporated and overall texture loosens, then thicken again with 1-2 tablespoons of flour. And so on until you almost run out of milk (retain about 100 ml aside). Then, add the ricotta cheese and mix:

When the cheese is (almost) evenly distributed, add the brown sugar and cinnamon:

Mix well. The pancake composition is ready. You may use it now or wait until a couple of hours later. 

To start, pour a little into a frying pan smeared with cooking oil, then, and as it hardens (in 1-2 minutes) break it up with a wooden spatula into little fringes:

This is the preferred method here because, apparently, the ricotta in the dough makes the pancakes particularly difficult to make (and especially turn) in their traditional format. And anyway, I've had it like this in a wonderful crepes place in Vama Veche and loved it nonetheless. Not to mention that this way the pancake pieces get better coverage with the toppings :). 

Anyway, continue until you've finished all the composition. You'll find that once in a while you'll need to loosen it with a little of the remaining milk. When you're done, you'll have a large serving plate full of fluffy spicy pancake pieces:

Top with the raspberry sauce, mixing so everything gets coated:

Cut the pomegranate in half and give each half a good smacking, face down, above the pancake platter, so the kernels fall out on top of it:

It's ready. Serve while warm. Dig in! :)