These orange cranberry ricotta pancakes with salted maple butter are absolute holiday brunch magic. They are decadent but light and cheery!

I don’t know any better word to describe these orange cranberry ricotta pancakes than decadent. They are somehow fluffy and creamy and light and rich and airy all at the same time. It’s actually kind of hilarious – we try not to photograph and blog recipes until we’ve tried them a couple of times. We like to make sure they are repeatable, foolproof, like to work out the kinks, make tweaks, etc. With these…we took one bite and said, “We’ve got to get these on the blog now.” They are just that good.

While these pancakes are spectacular, the secret to their greatness really isn’t that much of a secret. We’ve made ricotta pancakes before (so creamy…) and we’ve made pancakes with whipped egg whites before (so fluffy…), but I don’t think we’ve ever combined those two methods, which is what happens here. That’s the magic, I’m telling you.

Okay, well, it’s that and the combination of the salted maple butter and the oranges and cranberries. So it’s everything. But these last few ingredients are the flavor elevators (is that a thing?). The ricotta and the egg whites provide the texture, and when it comes to pancakes, texture is almost everything.

Another thing that is special about these pancakes, though, is their ability to be holiday festive without being exclusive to the holidays. You could really make these anytime of year. There’s nothing that makes them exclusive to winter and Christmastime. At the same time, they feel so festive and right for this time of year! If you want a holiday breakfast or brunch, this is a fabulous dish to make. The flavors say celebrate, and it’s so colorful. Cranberries say winter to me for some reason.

Also, the cranberry orange combination is just MONEY (we still say that, right?). We’ve been drawn to it for a long time – check out these copycat cranberry bliss bars or this cranberry orange croissant French toast if you don’t believe me…the flavors meld beautiful and are just bright and happy on your plate and in your mouth. Can’t go wrong.

If you’ll permit me, I have to take a second to reflect on the absurdity of pancake food photography. It always makes me laugh. If you try to photograph a reasonable stack of pancakes you might actually serve someone (say, two or three flapjacks), your photographs will look flat and unappetizing (generally speaking). But a nice big stack of six or seven or eight or ten, and suddenly it looks lovely and reasonable. What. Anyway. If you really eat your pancakes in a stack like this, send us a picture. Seriously.