09 February 2012

Dutch Baby Oven Pancake

The Dutch baby, also known as the German pancake, the Bismarck, or the Dutch puff (according to Wikipedia) is a relative of the British Yorkshire pudding. A very large, very puffy, very egg-y and very loveable relative. Although it is derived from the real German pancake (which in fact is nothing but a less thin and a little less large crêpe) I, as a German, had never heard of it in the 24 years of my life until a few weeks ago (when I came across it on Tastespotting). And that's got to mean that it's not really a German recipe (or that it's been completely forgot about in our little country) because, believe me, there's no German pudding I don't know about.


But it has all the fluffy, egg-y, floury, buttery goodness of a German Mehlspeise so let's just consider it (re-)adopted into traditional German cuisine.
And it's even better than normal pancakes because you don't have to watch it or flip it or anything. Just pop it into the oven and let the heat do all the work for you. Easy-peasy.

 

That's what it looked like when it came out of the oven (the white stuff in the middle is icing sugar). A naked Dutch baby, so to say (boy, that sounds a bit weird). It was actually quite a bit larger but immediately collapsed the moment I removed it from the cosy heat of the oven. Like a souffle. Or a deflating balloon. Puff!


The Dutch baby is traditionally eaten with icing sugar, apples and/or lemon slices but I prefer the more decadent version, as always. This one has a topping of cream cheese, raspberries (defrosted frozen ones, of course), brown sugar, and chocolate chips.


Dutch Baby Oven Pancake
Recipe by Completely delicious

2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs
60 g/0.5 cup all-purpose flour
125 ml/0.5 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1 pinch of vanilla
0.25 tsp salt
4 Tbsp cream cheese (optional)
1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional)
100 g/1 cup raspberries (optional)
1 Tbsp chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat your oven to 205° C/400° F.

Put the butter into a medium-sized (22 cm/9 in) ovenproof frying pan. When the oven's warm enough, put in the pan until the butter has melted.

Meanwhile, mix the eggs, flour, milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Remove the pan from the oven and swirl the butter until bottom and sides of the pan are completely coated. Then pour in the pancake mixture, put it back into the oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes, checking on it occasionally.

Serve hot with cream cheese, raspberries, brown sugar, and chocolate chips, or with a topping of your choice.

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