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72% would make again

Futuristic Pancakes

featured in Pancakes For The Entire Month

Do you ever get sick of maple syrup seeping into your pancakes, never to be seen or tasted again? Well, what if science could fix that? For these futuristic pancakes, we use reverse spherification--a process that allows us to enclose a liquid in an edible capsule--to create maple syrup and fruit compote pods that will burst when you bite into them, and won’t magically disappear into your short stack.

Tikeyah Whittle & Andrew Pollock
Tasty Team

30 minutes

30 minutes

Ingredients

for 2 SERVINGS

Fruit Spheres

  • 4 ½ cups cold filtered water (1000 g)
  • 1 teaspoon sodium alginate powder (5 g)
  • 8 oz fresh blueberry (225 g)
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
  • 8 oz fresh strawberry (225 g), steemed and quartered
  • 1 teaspoon calcium lactate powder (4 g)
  • 1 drop blue gel food coloring
  • 1 drop red gel food coloring

Maple Syrup Spheres

  • ¾ cup pure maple syrup (200 g)
  • 1 teaspoon calcium lactate powder (4 g)
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (1 g)
  • 1 batch Tasty's lemon ricotta pancakes, without blueberry compote

Included in this Recipe

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Nutrition Info

Powered by
    Calories 369
    Fat 0g
    Carbs 93g
    Fiber 6g
    Sugar 78g
    Protein 1g

Estimated values based on one serving size.

Preparation

  1. Make the fruit spheres: Set the basin of a blender on a kitchen scale and zero out the weight. Weigh out 1,000 grams (4 cups) of cold water.
  2. Secure the basin onto the blender base and add the sodium alginate. Blend on high speed for 60 seconds, until the sodium alginate is completely dissolved. The water will become more viscous.
  3. Transfer the sodium alginate mixture to a wide, shallow baking dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or up to overnight, to remove any bubbles that may have formed during blending. Clean out the blender.
  4. Add the blueberries and 1 tablespoon sugar to the blender and purée until smooth.
  5. Place a medium glass bowl on a kitchen scale and zero out the weight. Strain the blueberry puree through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl until you have 100 grams of liquid. Discard any remaining purée.
  6. Rinse out the blender basin and repeat with the strawberries and remaining tablespoon of sugar.
  7. To each bowl, add 2 grams of calcium lactate powder. Add the blue food coloring to the bowl with the blueberry purée and the red food coloring to the bowl with the strawberry purée. Whisk until combined.
  8. Using a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon, carefully drop scoops of the fruit purées into the sodium alginate bath, making sure they do not touch. Let the spheres sit in the bath for 1 minute, then carefully use a slotted spoon to transfer the spheres to a bowl of clean filtered water. Set the alginate bath aside for the maple syrup spheres. Gently stir the spheres in the water to rinse off any sodium alginate. Transfer to another bowl of clean filtered water to hold until ready to use, up to 1 hour.
  9. Make the maple syrup spheres: Place a medium glass bowl on a kitchen scale and zero out the weight. Add the maple syrup to the bowl, along with the calcium lactate powder and xanthan gum and whisk until the powders are fully dissolved into the syrup.
  10. Using a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon, carefully drop scoops of the maple syrup mixture into the sodium alginate bath, making sure they do not touch. Let the spheres sit in the bath for 1 minute, then very carefully use a slotted spoon to transfer to a bowl of clean filtered water. Gently stir the spheres to rinse off any sodium alginate. Transfer to another bowl of clean filtered water to hold until ready to use, up to 1 hour.
  11. Stack the pancakes on serving plates.
  12. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the spheres from the water and shake until any excess water runs off. Add a generous mound of fruit and maple spheres to the top of the pancakes stacks. Serve immediately.
  13. Enjoy!

Need easy dinner ideas?

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Need easy dinner ideas?

These meals will make your weeknights way simpler. (And tastier!)

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