I’ve been enjoying Dutch Babies for breakfast all my life. It was a breakfast staple in my house but my mom called them German pancakes. I always thought they were so special with how they puffed up so big in the oven. I love anything with flair, and a pancake that goes into the oven flat and sad and comes out puffed up and gorgeous is right up my alley.
This is also without a doubt one of the easiest things to make. You only need 5 ingredients: Milk, Flour, Eggs, Butter and Sugar. It mixes up as well in only about 20 minutes. So when you are needing something fast this is a great choice.
Step 1
Turn the oven on to 425 F. While that’s heating up get out all your ingredients because the closer to room temperature the better for this. I also use this time while I’m waiting for things to heat up and get to room temp to make myself a Nespresso. I’m obsessed with my Nespresso machine and no morning is complete now without a latte at home.
Step 2
Get either a cast iron skillet or nice pie pan out. You want a pan that will get nice and hot. Stick 1 TBS of butter in the pan and stick it in the oven to melt and get all browned and delicious.
Now the main recipe that I started from years ago was in the Joy of Cooking and it calls for a LOT more butter than I’m using here. But years of WW will do this to you. I cut back the butter, but you can’t lose it all together, because that would just be sad and the pancake wouldn’t rise up. You need the butter but use the amount you are comfortable with.
PS the Joy of Cooking is the most amazing cookbook and it’s what I lived from before the internet had so many resources for cooking. It will tell you how to do pretty much ANYTHING in the kitchen. It’s like my encyclopedia for cooking. Get one if you don’t have one.
Step 2
Mix up all those ingredients. I use a liquid measuring cup that’s a good size to hold the ingredients with some space to spare to prevent splashing when blending starts. Dump it all in.
Now I blend with my stick blender until it’s totally smooth. Probably 2 30 second blends will do. This is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. It’s so easy and if you need to blend something in a pot you can do it in one go without pouring it into something else. 1 step 1 dish is always my goal.
Step 3
Go get that dish from the oven. The butter will be browned up nicely and your oven should now be at 425. I leave it on the stove because its hot and it is going back in the oven right away.
Pour the batter into the hot dish. Now leave it alone for 30 seconds. This is important. It sets a bit and starts cooking in the hot dish.
Step 4
Cook for 12 minutes. DO. NOT. OPEN. THE. OVEN. You need to just leave it be. If you open it will potentially fall and not pouf up. Also make sure there is room for it to rise. No racks above unless they are 4-6” up. You want room to breathe.
Step 5
Now you just serve it up. The classic is butter of course with some fresh squeezed lemon and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. You can do the standard maple syrup or fresh fruit. Some Dutch Babies get fancy with fruit inside while baking. Maybe I’ll try one of those soon…
Recipe
- 1/2 C Milk
- 1/2 C Flour
- 1/4 C Sugar (I use a little less, maybe 2 TBS)
- 2 Large Eggs (room Temperature)
- 2 TBS Butter (1 for the skillet/pan and 1 for topping)
- Lemon fresh squeezed and Powdered Sugar
- Heat oven to 425F
- 1 TBS Butter in Pan and put it in the oven while you complete the other steps.
- Mix all the ingredients in a blender or whisk very well
- Pour the batter into the hot pan with melted butter. Let sit for 30 seconds to set.
- Back in the oven for 12 min
- Serve hot with butter, squeeze lemon over the top and dust with powdered sugar. Or whatever you love for toppings.
This recipe serves 2, so if you have a crowd double it and bake all at once in a casserole dish or bigger cast iron skillet. Or just keep a constant rotation going. That’s what we used to do.
ENJOY!