Saturday, November 28, 2009

Dutch Babies and kitchen distractions

Have you ever eaten a Dutch Baby? Well, it sounds a little absurd, but a dutch baby is a type of pancake. I copied the official definition/history of the Dutch baby down for you at the bottom in case you are interested, but all you really need to know is that they are DELICIOUS! I love them. Super simple to make and really yummy!

I decided to make one for Matt and me on Thanksgiving morning since I wanted the whole day to be special. They are easy, but seem like a treat!


Well, I started putting the ingredients together, and got my mixing bowl out, but Matt kept distracting me...holding me, kissing me, tickling me, etc. All lovely, but quite distracting when you are trying to make breakfast. Well, I mixed up the batter for the dutch baby and started the bacon cooking while I preheated the oven. I put the batter in the pan, put the pan in the oven and we waited for the pancake to cook. I was all excited to take a picture of it for this blog and so when I went to take it out of the oven I had Matt ready with oven mitts so that I could snap the photo before it "fell". Dutch babies rise like a souffle and fall quickly once removed from the oven, so I wanted to make sure to get the full glory of it in the photo. Matt opened the oven and I was ready, but....it was FLAT! Browner than it should be and FLAT!







Ugh! It was the first time I had tried the Dutch Baby since we moved and I wondered if I had done something wrong with the oven heat or if I had overcooked it and it had fallen in the oven. I was perplexed. I even took the recipe sheet and crumpled it up! I was sure it wasn't a good recipe.






We ate it anyway, but I dislike it when my food doesn't turn out, so I was very disappointed. Not a good way to start Thanksgiving at all.

When I started cleaning up the kitchen I realized that I only saw 2 egg shells in the trash...not the 4 called for in the recipe. I asked Matt if he had thrown out extra shells. "No", he said. Then I started to put it all together. While I had been mixing the batter, Matt had been hugging on me and playing around. I guess I had started with the eggs, got distracted by Matt and then forgot to put the remaining eggs in. It all made sense! I put the full blame of the flat Dutch Baby on Matt and he laughed and protested. He did admit to maybe being a little troublesome while I was in the kitchen, but wasn't taking full responsibility, so I fished out the crumpled up recipe from the trash and decided to try them again the next morning and see how they turned out. This time...NO distractions!

Well, long story short, the Dutch Baby turned out delicious and perfect. As it should be. So, I have written out below the recipe for you and I hope you enjoy! Moral of this story...don't let your man be a kitchen distraction!

DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup half and half

for the topping: melted butter, lemon juice and powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees

Melt the butter in a large cast iron or heavy oven safe skillet
Whisk together eggs, flour and half and half
Pour batter into the skillet over the melted butter and slide skillet into the oven.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until lightly brown

Removed puffed up pancake from oven, drizzle with melted butter, lemon juice and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Serve immediately! Feeds 2!







Puffed up and yummy!





















All's well that ends well. Matt was happy with the second version of the Dutch Baby, but he will eat most anything!













A Dutch baby pancake, sometimes called a German pancake, is a sweet breakfast dish similar to Yorkshire pudding and derived from the German Apfelpfannkuchen. It is made with eggs, flour and milk, and usually seasoned with vanilla and cinnamon, although occasionally sugar is also added. It is baked in a metal pan and falls soon after being removed from the oven. It is generally served with fresh squeezed lemon, butter, and powdered sugar or fruit toppings or syrup.
It is thought by some that the "Dutch" moniker refers to the group of German-American immigrants known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, where "Dutch" is a corruption of the German autonym "deutsch".
The Dutch baby is a specialty of some diners and chains that specialize in breakfast dishes, such as the Oregon-founded The Original Pancake House or the New England-based chain Bickford's, which makes both a plain Dutch baby and a similar pancake known as the Baby Apple, which contains apple slices embedded in the pancake.

2 comments:

  1. Men are evolved to be kitchen distractions, there's nothing you can do about it. :)

    ReplyDelete