Oh, Baby!

This is a recipe for Dutch Baby pancakes. I've been meaning to post it for a few days now, but it isn't exactly weekday fare (except for those of you geniuses among us who've figured out how to work from home), but by posting it now, I can get you psyched for the weekend! (I have been using a lot of exclamation points lately, and probably use the word "awesome" too much -- I hope you don't find this too annoying, because I can't really stop.)

These pancakes were the speciality of a certain Manca's Cafe in Seattle back in the 1940s. One of the owner's daughters coined the name. The "Dutch" refers to the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are actually of German origin. This explains the similarity between these pancakes and the German apfelpfannkuchen which we all know, translates to "Dutch Baby pancake." I got all this from Wikipedia, so it must be true.

The great thing about Dutch Baby pancakes is that making them gives you the excuse to say "Baby!" all the time (and we can all use an excuse for that!). So you can say stuff like "These babies are awesome!" and "Look at these babies!" or just "Oh, Baby!". You also have the rare excuse to sing baby related songs while you cook and eat them. Stuff like "Oooooh, baby I love your way...," and "Baby's good to me...," and "My baby loves love, my baby loves lovin'...," or my personal favourite "I've heard people say that too much of anything is not good for you, Baby. Oh no. But I don't know about that...." This last one is especially useful when you have had two of these babies :D already and are trying to justify a third one.

ANYWAY, this recipe comes from Molly Wizenberg's A homemade life. You'll need two tablespoons of butter, 4 large eggs, 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of half-and-half cream (or whipping cream - yeah, yeah!), and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. The lemon is there for squeezing over the creation when it's done (and I forgot to show the icing sugar that goes on at the same time).

Two small skillets are ideal for this (6 inch size), although you can make one massive pancake in an 8 to 10 inch skillet (Molly says so, I can only vouch for the small ones). Heat your oven to 425 with the skillets in there. You need them hot at the start, otherwise this will fail miserably. Skillets take ages to heat up, so if you throw a cold one in the oven with your batter, it won't get enough lift to produce the right results.

While the skillets and oven are warming up, prepare your batter. Molly calls for a blender, but I really don't like cleaning a blender unless there are margaritas involved, so I mixed this up in a bowl with a whisk. Just crack your eggs into the bowl, whisk them up, add your cream, whisk again, add your flour and salt, whisk some more, and presto! All set.

Pour the batter into something that can pour easily. I use a big measuring cup. This makes the transition to the skillets easier, and helps keep an even amount of batter in each pan since you can measure it.

Get an oven mit on, take your skillets out, and drop a pat of butter in each one (about a tablespoon worth). When it's melted, swirl it around a bit so it coats the sides of the pans too. (Okay, maybe I used more than a tablespoon, but it's good for you!)

Then pour half of your batter into each of your pans. (Don't worry about the butter lake -- it will be yummy!) Pop the pans in the oven and wait for 20-25 minutes.

When they look like this, you're all set! They kind of explode in there, like Yorkshire puddings, or Jiffy Pop in reverse. No matter what, they sure look cool.

Next step is to ease them out of the pans (they may be a little stuck in the very middle, so slide something under there to make sure they come out in one piece). Then plate them up, squeeze half a lemon over each one, and sprinkle some icing sugar on top. So good -- like French toast without the bread! You can then slice and share, eat the whole thing, eat a couple of them, whatever!

Bon appetit, Baby!