Dutch Baby pancakes

Baked in a cast iron skillet, these are a cross between pancake and a popover. The simple batter contains eggs, butter, flour, milk and sugar with a little vanilla flavouring. It’s best to whip it up in a blender so it’s lump free. Once it’s ready, you pour it into a heated cast iron skillet and slide it into the oven. Within minutes the batter will puff up creating it own raised sides “bowl” ready to be filled with berries, sprinkled with icing sugar or showered with a squeeze of lemon.

You can bake these in a cast iron skillet or another oven proof skillet or baking dish, or even in muffin  tin as you see in the images below.

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If you bake it in a large skillet then cut it into wedges to serve. If you have a few individual size skillets then you can make individual portions. I like them best served whole. Although it looks very attractive in the cast iron skillet, I don’t serve them out of the skillet because it takes a while to cool and I don’t want anyone burning themselves in the process of eating. I lift it out of the skillet onto a plate and serve it that way. This also makes a lovely dessert to showcase sweet berries of the season.

Baking them in a muffin pans produce slightly different pancakes and you would serve more than one per person. They puff up significantly and then fall when you remove them from the oven, have lost the steam power that keep them raise. They are delicious for serving though so don’t sweat it trying to serve them all puffed up.

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This recipe makes one 8″ or two 4″ pancake.

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Ingredients:

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2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon butter for skillet

Toppings:

Mixed berries

Icing sugar

Whipped cream

Lemon wedge

Maple syrup

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Directions:

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Preheat oven to 425°F.

Place the eggs, melted butter, milk, sugar and vanilla in a blender and blend with on off for a few seconds.

Add the flour and blend for another few seconds until the batter is smooth.

Place the batter in the skillet and place in the oven to heat up and melt the batter. Be careful not to brown the butter.

Remove the skillet from the oven and swirl the butter to coat the bottom and sides.

Pour the pancake batter into the skillet and place in the hot oven.

Bake for 15 minutes without opening the oven door. Reduce heat to 375°F and bake another 5 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the oven and let rest a couple of minutes.

You can remove the pancake out of the skillet gently and transfer to a serving dish or serve directly out of the skillet.

To serve, sprinkle the pancakes with icing sugar and scatter a few berries around.

Serve whole or cut into wedges.

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