I love pancakes. I could eat them every day without complaint. However, the thought of whipping them up first thing in the morning is often enough of a deterrent for me to switch to making a less complicated breakfast dish.
So, I was glad to discover a kindred soul in food blogger Amber Wilson as well as her recipe for a Dutch baby (essentially a giant eggy pancake) in her new book, For the Love of the South. And the best part is that the simple batter can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge.
“This is one of my favorite breakfasts because I can make the batter the night before, which eliminates the need to measure anything before I’ve had my morning coffee,” she writes about the recipe in the book. “And it never fails to impress as the effortless puffy pancake comes out of the oven.”
She suggests topping the Dutch baby with traditional Southern delicacy, muscadine grapes. (Blackberries and dark cherries also work well.) “I like to serve tart fruit with a Dutch baby to balance out the sweetness of the dish,” she writes. “If I don’t have fresh fruit on hand, I simply spritz the Dutch baby with lemon juice and dust it with powdered sugar.”
No matter how you garnish it, you’ll actually want to make these oversized pancakes first thing in the morning.
Muscadine Dutch Baby
By Amber Wilson
INGREDIENTS:
.25 cup All-purpose flour
.25 cup Milk
2 large Eggs
2 Tbsp Granulated sugar
2 tsp Vanilla extract
pinch Kosher salt
1 Tbsp Unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 handful Muscadines, halved and seeded
Powdered sugar, for dusting
DIRECTIONS:
Place a medium ovenproof skillet in the oven and preheat to 425°F.
In a blender, combine the flour, milk, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt and blend until smooth. (Alternatively, combine the ingredients in a bowl and blend with an immersion blender or whisk for a few minutes until completely smooth.)
Remove the preheated pan from the oven, add the butter, and swirl it around until it melts. Brush the melted butter up the sides of the skillet. Pour the batter into the skillet and immediately return to the oven. Bake until the edges are golden and puffy, 15 to 20 minutes. Arrange the muscadines on top and dust with powdered sugar. Cut in half and serve.
To make the batter ahead of time, just cover the batter tightly once it’s blended up and stash it away in the fridge overnight. Though it is not necessary to rest the batter, I find it creates a lovely, ruffled Dutch baby.
The recipe serves 2
From the book: For the Love of the South by Amber Wilson. Copyright © 2018 by Amber Wilson. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.