Breakfast for Lunch: Dutch Baby Pancake

For the first few weeks after I was fired, I did a really good job of getting out of bed at a reasonable time and getting out of my pajamas before noon. This week, though, we have been staying up late every night, which is making my wake up time later and later every day.

I actually crawled out of bed around 9:00 this morning, but I couldn't get motivated to get anything done. Instead, I caught up on blogs that I love and that's when I saw this recipe for Dutch Baby Pancakes over on Cup of Jo. Looked like lunch to me.

I have never made a Dutch Baby before, but I will be honest here and now and say that pancakes are one of my favorite things to eat and one of my least favorite things to make. I don't know if it is the temperature of the pan or the amount of butter I use in the pan or the length of time I mix the pancake batter for, but I am rarely successful when it comes to making a stack. This is why the Dutch Baby is so very appealing - it's all the flavor of a pancake with none of the fussiness of the flipping.

Dutch Baby Pancake

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Whole Milk
• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
• 2 tsp. Sugar
• A pinch of Salt

Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on the middle rack of your oven, then heat it to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Be sure to stir CONSTANTLY or the bottom of your pan will be wrecked and take some elbow grease to clean. Not that I speak from experience or anything. :-) Allow the butter to cook until it turns a caramel color and gives off a nutty smell. Take a moment to enjoy that aroma - there is not much better than the smell of browned butter. Set the pan aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients except the butter. Once they are just combined, add 1 Tbsp. of the melted butter and mix well.

Remove the skillet from the oven and add the remaining melted butter. Swirl it around so it coats the bottom and the sides, about halfway up the pan. Slowly pour the batter into the skillet.

Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. The middle of the Baby will delightfully puff up and it will look like you are baking a sombrero. This is the desired result. It's ok, you're doing it right! 

Yield: 6-ish servings (but we each at about a 1/3 of the thing, so really 3 servings if you are hungry. Or 1 serving if you are feeling selfish, which is ok sometimes, really!)

Cup of Jo's recipe has a lovely pear topping to go along with it, but we are fresh out of pears at Casa de Woods. So, we improvised a little. Some of us topped it with butter and maple syrup, some of us used strawberry-fig jam, and some of us decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make a PB&J out of a pancake. Yummy all around and the pan was empty at the end of lunch.

I think it would be fun to do a savory version of this and maybe top it with goat cheese and tomatoes. Maybe tomorrow...