As most of you know I love to cook. I love every aspect of cooking, from choosing the recipe, shopping the ingredients, to the actual preparing and cooking of the food. I can spend hours looking for new recipes to try. It's one of my favorite things to do.
One thing I do not like and I am awful at though is BAKING.
There's too much riding on exactly measured ingredients. Too much attention needed while it's in the oven (especially in our oven from the 1070's) And nothing ever comes out as good as my mom's baked goods.The other day though, when I was planning to make brunch for the first weekend of the new year I happened upon something called a Dutch Baby pancake. I was intrigued by it but was momentarily put off by when I saw that it is baked. In the oven. With carefully measured ingredients. sigh. I decided though that I wasn't going to be intimidated by the baking aspect of this recipe. I was going to make one of these pancakes.
Let me tell you...it is so easy. Almost fail proof. And really something cool to watch bake. It puffs up the sides of the cast iron pan...almost like a souffle except only on the sides . The bottom of the pancake becomes the consistency of really thin french toast. Served with lemon sugar, lemon juice and raspberries it really was a unexpected treat for brunch.
I found the recipe here and only made a few changes to it. I would suggest not making as much lemon sugar as she has you make. I used maybe one tablespoon of the lemon sugar because I also squeezed one half of a lemon on the pancake before adding the sugar.
1/3-Cup (65 g) Sugar
2 tsp Grated Lemon Zest
3 Large Eggs, at room temperature
2/3 Cup (160 ml) 1% Milk, at room temperature
2/3 Cup (80 g) All-Purpose Flour
¼ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1/8 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Grated Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Sea Salt
½ Stick (55 g) Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces
juice of 1/2 a lemon
Equipment: A 10-inch (25 cm) Cast-Iron Skillet
Method
Put the skillet on middle rack of the oven and preheat oven to 450˚F or 225˚C.
In a small bowl, mix the lemon zest with sugar.
Beat the eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt until smooth, about 1 minute.
Remove the skillet from oven and melt the butter. Tilt the pan so that the butter coats the sides and pour in the batter. Return the skillet to the oven and bake until puffed and golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes.
Serve immediately, topped with lemon juice, lemon sugar and fresh berries, if desired.
Serve 2-4
