Sunday, November 02, 2008

German pancake with baked apples and cranberries

Natashya just posted about her German apple pancake, which reminded me that I had some leftover baked apples and cranberries that would be perfect. (I had whipped up a batch of apple-cranberry crisp without the crisp, just because I like the baked fruit so much.)
My recipe varies slightly from Natashya's but the principle is the same. I use my great-grandmother's cast-iron skillet, which once upon a time was dedicated solely to German pancakes. I now use it for other things, too, but never anything that would give an off flavor to 100-plus years of seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 400 and whip together:
Three beaten eggs
half cup milk
half cup flour

You can do this all in one large measuring cup. I measure the milk, crack the eggs into it, beat with a hand mixer, then add the flour using a level half-cup scoop and mix it again.

Pour it into a heavily buttered, cold skillet. Make sure your oven is fully preheated.
Baking time is about 20 minutes or less. Start watching it at about 15 minutes. The pancake will puff up like crazy, but as soon as you take it out of the oven, it will collapse.

You can add any kind of filling you like, or just sprinkle a little powdered sugar over it, or butter and syrup.

The apples and cranberries in this case were just tossed with a little white and brown sugar, cinnamon and a grinding of nutmeg, then baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. So you could prep a batch and throw them in the oven with the pancake in a separate dish.
Ideally I would've added bacon alongside this dish, but it was pretty good all by itself, too.

I recently learned that these are also called Dutch babies, and there's a "Dutch baby pan" you can buy. But it's really not necessary. A skillet works fine.

I can never make more than one pancake at a time because the pan has to start cold. If I'm serving more people, I'll make waffles instead.

P.S. If you like apples and cranberries together, my Apple Cranberry Cake came out awesome. And the Apple Cranberry Crisp was pretty good, too.

5 comments:

  1. Looks yummy. Love cranberries. :)
    I didnt know pancakes needed to be made on a cold pan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My recipe calls for a hot pan filled with a ton of butter. YMMV.
    But I have never had a pouffe like yours!

    Bake off!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never made it in a cold pan either, really intersting.
    I usually fold mine over too but hubby finished up for me when I burnt my paw(and I didn't want to correct him!)
    Yours looks beautifully puffed and tasty, I love the cranberries.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks great, hot pan or cold. I like the addition of the cranberries!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Aristarkhos. Not all pancakes, just the German variety that goes in the oven.

    Titus, i've never managed to make a decent one in a hot pan, but maybe I need to experiment. The pouf is fun, but disappears immediately.

    Natashya, I hope your hand heals quickly! Thanks for the inspiration.

    Zoomie, the cranberry credit goes to Jen Yu at Use Real Butter. They're part of the crisp recipe where the filling idea originated.

    ReplyDelete