I woke up this morning admittedly a little foggy, a pint and a half of heady beer last night doesn’t sound like much but nevertheless beer is not my friend. My husband was nice enough to get up with the dog hours earlier and even prepared the coffee for brewing knowing I would rise for the day before him. So with my hair in every direction and sleep still in my eyes, I hit “brew” and peered into the fridge looking for inspiration. After hanging on the door for what seemed like an eternity, I decided on a Dutch Baby. Best – breakfast – ever, especially on a chilly morning!
I like to do something special on weekends when my husband is home for breakfast. The usual suspects weren’t going to cut it today. If you haven’t heard of a Dutch baby, perhaps you know it as a German pancake? The texture reminds me of fried dough crossed with a pancake – they are crispy on the outside, moist and soft on the inside. I don’t know about you but fried dough brings back happy memories from my childhood local town fair and this brings out the kid in me. The excitement would build as I watched the dough hit the oil, and the minute it was plated and handed over the counter I would immediately mound it with confectioner’s sugar. There was no waiting for it to cool down, sticky fingers and a burnt tongue with a huge grin on my face…
Similar to fried dough, the batter balloons up in the oven and then falls when removed from the heat. They are typically sprinkled with sugar while still hot, and enjoyed immediately. Today as I looked around, I felt it needed a gooey sauce. There was no way I was going to leave my house so I had to work with what I had on hand. Here is what I came up with –
Roasted blueberries with vanilla bean sugar:
Ingredients:
1/2 lb +/- blueberries
1 vanilla bean halved and scraped
2 tablespoons organic sugar
Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with tin foil. Mix the vanilla bean with the sugar. Lay your blueberries out on the tin foil and sprinkle with the sugar mixture. Roast between 8-10 minutes.
Make this sauce while your milk and eggs are coming to room temperature for the Dutch baby. Recipe follows –
Dutch Baby:
Ingredients:
3 eggs at room temperature – I used fresh eggs from my brother’s laying hens
2/3 C 2% organic milk at room temperature
zest of one orange
2/3 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp organic vanilla extract
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 stick organic butter – preferably from grass-fed dairy cows
1/3 C organic sugar
Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees, place a large cast iron pan on the middle rack and prepare your batter.
I used an immersion blender but you can use a hand blender to mix your eggs until pale and frothy:
Add the rest of your ingredients (minus sugar and orange zest) – milk, flour, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and beat until smooth. This is a very thin batter so don’t be alarmed.
This next part is key – be ready to do it quickly. Pull the pan out of the oven and add the butter – give it a swirl and add the batter.
There is no time to stop and take a picture of the batter, let it cook without opening the door for 18-20 minutes.
Meanwhile – mix your orange zest with the leftover vanilla sugar and add another 2 tablespoons of sugar to that. You want this ready for when the dutchie comes out of the oven.
Ahh! Isn’t this so cool! Here is what it looks like right out of the oven:
Sprinkle right away with your orange infused sugar – I never said this was a healthy breakfast 😉
These are meant to be shared but you wouldn’t be the first person to throw one down solo – slice into the pancake and serve up with your leftover orange.
Try not to inhale at warp speed, instead savor this decadent breakfast. Simply divine ~
Feel free to change-up your fruit or your citrus, enjoy!