Dutch Baby Pancake

Dutch Baby Pancake - made April 2, 2017 from Brown-Eyed Baker

Yes, another skillet recipe. When I first bought the smaller cast iron skillet, I thought I would primarily bake cookies a la pizzookies in them but I’m finding other, creative uses for them. Such as this Dutch Baby pancake.

It isn’t a traditional pancake in that you don’t heat the skillet, pour pancake batter into it and then flip it over when the edges are browned. That would be a regular pancake and you can use any regular frying pan or griddle for that. No, this is a Dutch Baby pancake. It’s a German pancake baked in the oven. Think of it as a cross between a custard and a popover. Made with no sugar (for real) but flour, butter, salt and milk.

It puffs up in the oven during baking and is a perfect candidate for cast iron skillet baking because the cast iron crisps the outside while the inside and middle remain soft. This is so easy to make that I advise you preheat your oven and don’t start mixing the ingredients together until it’s at least at 350 degrees. You bake this at high heat and you want it to go into the oven right after it’s mixed.

I put all the ingredients into the blender, had the melted butter ready to go in the skillet, whipped the batter together in a matter of seconds, poured it into the skillet and popped it into the oven. 15 or so minutes later, it came out beautifully golden and puffy. The edges and bottom were crisp while the middle was soft and almost custard-like. The texture was akin to a really good bread pudding with a soft custard texture but without the bread. Hard to describe but this recipe is so easy that you can make it for yourself without any trouble and see what I mean.

The puffiness does subside so you might want to plan on serving and eating this shortly after you take it out of the oven. I skipped the syrup and went with melted butter. For something without any sugar, it was pretty tasty. And I don’t say that very often.

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
2. In a blender, combine the flour, eggs, milk, salt and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Blend until smooth with no lumps, 20 to 30 seconds.
3. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter over high heat until foamy. Add the batter and immediately put the skillet in the oven. Bake until the outside of the pancake is puffed and a deep golden color, 17 to 18 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, slather with softened butter, and cut into quarters. Pour syrup over the pancake slices and dust with powdered sugar.