Are you familiar with the Dutch babies?
They are pretty much the best breakfast ever!
No, we aren’t eating babies for breakfast at our house; these awesome popovers turned pancakes just have a rather unique name. The batter gets poured into a piping hot pan and then baked off until it reaches a delectable equilibrium of fantastic fluffiness and browned crisp.
You can eat it with butter and syrup like a regular pancake, but what really makes it is serving it with lemon wedges and icing sugar. The sweet, tart, crisp and puff make for a special way to start the day whether it be for breafast, or for those late risers, brunch.
Here’s the secret to a good Dutch baby: the hotter the pan is, the better it rises. When it comes out of the oven, it should be bowl shaped, not flat like a regular pancake. This means that you need a pan that can go into your oven (no plastic handles in the oven!). I am a cast iron lover, and feel that it achieves the best crisp, but if you don’t have a cast iron pan any oven safe pan will do or even a pie plate or round cake pan. Try to stick with metal, though, I’ve tried Dutch babies in glass pie pans, and it just isn’t the same.
Dutch babies are what we eat for Christmas mornings at our house, and for other breakfasts and brunches through the year. If you haven’t had one yet: carpe diem!
Dutch Babies
(recipe adapted from Alton Brown’s Good Eats)
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 Cup flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Cup milk (2% is what I used)
2 eggs
a lemon, cut into wedges
icing sugar for sprinkling
Directions
- Set the oven to 475° F. Put your pan into the oven to let it come up to heat as the oven does as well.
- Melt 1/2 of the butter, and put it into a mixing bowl with the flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, milk and eggs. Whisk until completely smooth.
- Once the oven, and therefore the pan, are up to temperature, pull the pan out and add the remaining butter. Once it melts spread it over the inside surface of the pan. The butter will keep your Dutch baby from sticking and also will help it brown.
- Pour the batter into the hot, buttered pan. It should sizzle and spatter a little. Return the pan to the oven and bake until your dutch baby is puffed and brown (~12 minutes).
- Serve with lemon wedges and icing sugar.
This recipe makes one Dutch baby. They are quite sizable; for Mr and myself, I generally only make one and we share it. Mr would totally eat one all by himself if I didn’t serve other things with it. I say this so that you make more than one if you are serving a crowd.
Best breakfast ever, especially if you have some fruit salad and maybe some bacon or sausages on the side.
Mr isn’t going to make a plea for bacon this post, because he generally gets it with Dutch babies, but he says: “Dutch babies are my favorite pancake type object.” and also that is true that he would prefer to have one all to himself next time. Duly noted, Mr.
This time last year: Salted Double Chocolate Cookies
And the year before: Buckwheat Honey Madeleines
