lemon + zucchini corncakes

Limón y calabacín, or lemon and zucchini as you may know them, were the flavors of my summer. Working at a Montessori school’s garden all season, we had an overflowing crop of zucchini and lots of time to mess around with new recipes and get creative.

…zucchini ice cream, anyone? ;)

I’ve never been a huge fan of lemon flavor in desserts, but this summer my taste buds must have changed on me. ‘Cause now it’s all I crave. With the help of the Montessori kids who came to work in the garden, we started experimenting with some lemon-rosemary zucchini bread, then progressed to Martha’s lemon-zucchini cornmeal cookies *veganized* (Mom’s faaavorite), and from there I decided to add the tasty combo to my favorite cornmeal pancakes that I posted here last summer.

Fluffy and buttery cornmeal cakes with shreds of bright green zucchini and tangy lemon zest, spread with maple syrup-greek yogurt….. it’s summer bundled up into a little pancake.

Try these. While it’s still summer and there’s still garden fresh zucchini. That’s really all I have to say.

Oh, and then bake some of Martha’s cookies for dessert :)

lemon-zucchini corn cakes. adapted from these

makes about 6

1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or gluten free flour of choice)
1/3 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal
1 T pure cane sugar
¾ t baking powder
¾ t baking soda
1/2 t salt
½ cup buttermilk (or ½ T lemon juice and enough milk to make ½ cup)
2 T egg whites (or the white of one egg), beaten
½ heaping cup shredded zucchini
zest of 1 limón
olive oil for the griddle

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

The original recipe calls for beating the egg whites in a stand mixer until firm peaks form, but I just whisked mine until they were foamy, because I’m lazy :]

Add buttermilk to the dry ingredients and stir gently with a wooden spoon until evenly moistened; there will still be some lumps.

Fold in the beaten egg white and then the zucchini and lemon zest.

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet until hot, spoon 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancake. Cook over moderate heat until browned on the bottom and bubbles appear on the surface, 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the second side, about 2 minutes longer. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven while you continue with the remaining oil and batter. Mix up some pure maple syrup with plain Greek yogurt to top with :)

You can also freeze leftover pancakes for a quick and easy breakfast, or save the batter in the fridge to use up in a few days.