Bill says: “This is the original fluffy ricotta hotcake, on the menu at the first bills, on the first day. In Japan these were credited as the start of the trend for the cloud-like soufflé pancakes described as fluffy or fuwa fuwa – surely the world’s best onomatopoeia? Our Japanese kitchen teams have turned them into an art form and now we get letters from people wanting to train as dedicated ‘hotcake chefs’.”

Serves 6–8

Ingredients

For the honeycomb:

light-flavoured oil, for greasing
150g caster sugar
75g golden syrup
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the honeycomb butter:

250g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp runny honey
90g honeycomb, above or shop-bought, crushed

For the ricotta hotcakes:

300g ricotta
175ml milk
4 eggs, separated
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter

To serve:

icing sugar
1 banana, halved and sliced lengthways

Method

To make honeycomb, lightly oil a 20cm cake tin. Put the sugar and syrup in a heavy-based pan over medium–low heat. Swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar, then stir with a spatula until all dissolved – this might take 10–15 minutes, so be patient and do not let the mixture bubble at this stage.

Turn up the heat, use a sugar thermometer if you have one and heat the mixture to 155˚C or until a dark amber caramel. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda until golden and foaming. Be careful not to overstir: you want to retain as much air in the mixture as possible.

Carefully pour into the tin. Leave to harden and cool for about 90 minutes. Break into chunks and crush with a rolling pin. If you are making honeycomb butter, you will need half the amount, so store the rest in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. You can dip it in melted chocolate and sprinkle over ice cream. Or make double the amount of butter and freeze.

To make the honeycomb butter, blend the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Roll into a log, wrap in greaseproof paper and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

To make the hotcakes, mix together the ricotta, milk and egg yolks. Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into another bowl. Add the ricotta mixture and stir to combine.

Beat the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter in two batches with a large metal spoon.

Melt a little butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Add 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake, cooking in batches. Cook over low–medium heat for 2 minutes, or until golden underneath.

Turn and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Serve dusted with icing sugar, with sliced banana and honeycomb butter.

Australians know how to do brunch – here are 3 Bill Granger recipes to prove it