Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal! My blog assignment this month was Spinach Tiger where Angela posts a wide variety of beautiful delicious food.  It was, once again, a challenge to decide which recipe to try.

A couple recipes that I thought about trying were this Baked Spaghetti and Broccoli Frittata and this Roast Chicken with Lemons - and I'm planning to make both of them soon - but in the end I decided on this Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby.

Cook the apples, sugar & cinnamon

I've made Dutch Baby pancakes before, but I never baked the apples right in the pancake.  I don't know why, because it makes complete sense - why use two skillets - one to bake the pancake, and one to cook the apples - when you can use one?

Pour the batter on top

The first time I made this, I followed Angela's recipe - using 4 eggs, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup milk.  It was good, even though I cooked the apples and sugar a bit too much before I put the pancake in the oven so it was almost burnt around the edges.  We drizzled it with a bit of maple syrup, and it was yummy.

The second time I made it - yes, I had to make it again - I used only 3 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/2 cup milk.  And I made sure to only cook the apples for about 5 minutes like the recipe says.  I really liked the apple/pancake balance better this time, and I didn't even bother with the syrup.  It really didn't need it; the cinnamony, sugary goodness of the apples came through wonderfully.

Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby
recipe from Spinach Tiger

Ingredients

• 2 large apples (I used Fuji)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Peel, core and thinly slice apples.  Preheat oven to 450°.  
2. Melt butter in 10 inch frying pan (that can be transferred into oven). Cast iron is optimal. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Once melted, add in apples and cook until apples are softened, about five minutes. Place pan in oven while making batter.
3. Mix eggs with flour until smooth. Add in milk and vanilla.
4. Pour batter over apple mixture.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Cut into wedges

 Note: If you don’t have a frying pan that will go in oven, fry apples on top of stove and pour into a round cake pan, add batter and bake.

I will definitely be making this again!

Puffed Oven Pancake with Banana Sauce

I made this for breakfast Saturday morning. It was yummy! But so rich.

Puffed Oven Pancake with Brown Sugar Banana Sauce
adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

Ingredients:
Pancake:

• 2 T butter
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 t salt

Banana Sauce:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 medium bananas, sliced
• 2 T rum
  

Directions:

1. Place butter in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet.  Place in a 400° oven for 3 to 5 minutes or till butter melts.
2. In a medium mixing bowl use a wire whisk to beat eggs.  Add flour, milk, and salt.  Beat till mixture is smooth.
3. Pour into the hot skillet and bake 20-25 minutes or till puffed and well browned.
4. For brown sugar-banana sauce, in a small saucepan combine the 1/2 cup butter and the brown sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until melted. Add bananas; cook about 2 minutes or until heated through, stirring gently. Carefully stir in rum; heat through. 
5. To serve, spoon sauce over pancake. If desired, sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream. Serve warm.

Like I said, this was very good but very, very rich.  I want to try it again but cut down the butter and only use 1/2 of what it calls for.  Also, I think I could use a teaspoon of vanilla instead of the rum.  (I used spiced rum)  Yes, the rum was good, but it seems to be more of a dessert than a breakfast.  The original recipe said you could use 2 T of apple juice, but I didn't notice that until now.  Of course, I didn't have any apple juice.  I wonder how orange/pineapple juice would have worked?  I may just try that next time!

This made a lot of sauce, probably enough for two pancakes.  I poured all of the sauce onto the uncut pancake for picture purposes, but next time I'll just cut and serve the pancake and let everybody spoon the banana sauce on top.  And, yes, this sauce would be good on other things, like waffles and pancakes.  And ice cream.

I used my regular recipe for the Puffed Oven Pancake, which is pretty much the same as the Better Homes & Gardens recipe, just with one less egg and less flour, mostly because I wanted to bake it in my cast iron skillet, which is a 10-inch and not a 12-inch. 

Puffed Oven Pancake

My son Cory was at college during most of the Days of Unleavened Bread, so he didn't get to have the unleavened pancakes that everyone seems to like so much.  I was trying to decide what to fix for dinner and was thinking waffles.  Cory said he'd like the unleavened pancakes, but I only had enough cottage cheese to make one batch, not enough for everyone.  So I thought I'd make a batch of regular, ordinary pancakes too - but I saw this recipe when I pulled the cookbook out, so I made it instead.

Puffed Oven Pancake

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 t salt

Directions:

1. Place butter in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet.  Place in a 400° oven for 3 to 5 minutes or till butter melts.
2. In a medium mixing bowl use a wire whisk to beat eggs.  Add flour, milk, and salt.  Beat till mixture is smooth.
3. Pour into the hot skillet and bake about 25 minutes or till puffed and well browned.
4. Top with fruit, syrup, whipped cream, a dusting of powdered sugar...

We had it with 'fried apples' - Melt 2 T butter in skillet over medium heat; add sliced apples (4 or 5); top with brown sugar (sorry, I didn't measure, just used 3 scoops from the canister), and cook until tender, stirring occasionally. 

Related articles

• Fabulous & super easy Dutch Baby Pancake recipe! (chicagonow.com)
• Mini Dutch Babies (babyhedgehogs.wordpress.com)

Everyone's Favorite Pancakes

Breakfast (Photo credit: bcmom)

These pancakes are one of our favorite Unleavened Bread recipes.  Every year we have them several times, and the kids say they don't ever want "regular" pancakes again.

Golden Delight Pancakes

• 1 cup cream style cottage cheese
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour

Put all ingredients except flour into blender container.  Cover and blend at high speed, stopping to stir down once or twice.  Add flour and blend well.  Cook on greased griddle using about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.  I use a ladle because it just seems to work better than pouring from the blender.  You should be able to cook 4 pancakes at a time on a regular square griddle.

If you're not sure how to know when pancakes are done, read these instructions from  Baking 911:

After pouring the pancake batter, the side towards the griddle is done when the bubbles on top of the opposite or batter side have burst and left small holes. The batter takes on a dry sheen as well. When this happens, it is time to flip the pancake. Before doing so, lift up a corner of it with a spatula to make sure it's nicely browned on the bottom. Using a wide spatula, lift the pancake off the griddle and flip it over, placing it back down on the griddle. When golden brown, remove pancake from griddle.

Serve with butter, honey, syrup, strawberries, bananas, jam, or whatever you like with your pancakes.  Enjoy!

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Sourdough Pancakes

I found the original recipe, and then changed it. Mostly I increased it, added whole wheat flour, and made the batter thicker. The original recipe made some very thin pancakes, and we like ours to have some substance to them. Here's my recipe for sourdough pancakes:

Sourdough Pancakes
Ingredients:

• 1 cup sourdough starter (see recipe)
• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 3 cups whole wheat, 1 cup white flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Combine the starter, flour and water in a large non-reactive bowl. Beat until smooth, place the bowl in a warm place, cover and let it stand until morning. (Be sure to replenish your starter by adding 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup water; let stand until next morning; then refrigerate.)
2. Next morning, add the sugar, salt, oil, and eggs.
3. If desired, add the additional flour for a thicker batter. To avoid lumps, sprinkle half the flour on top of your batter, let sit for a few minutes and then slowly stir it in. Repeat until you get the desired consistency.
4. Dissolve baking soda in 1 tablespoon or so of water and mix into batter.
5. Heat a lightly greased griddle or skillet over medium heat (375°F - 190°C). Griddle is ready when a few drops of water bubble and skitter rapidly around.
6. For each pancake, ladle batter onto hot griddle. Cook pancakes until surface is covered with bubbles and pancakes appear dry around the edges. Turn and cook other side until golden brown.

Yum! Serve with syrup and bananas or peaches or whatever fruit you like on your pancakes.

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