I'm honestly not sure why Dutch babies are commonly considered a type of pancake. You even sometimes see them referred to as "German pancakes" or "skillet pancakes". This makes no sense to me. To my mind, they bear almost no resemblance to a pancake. They are basically large, slightly sweet Yorkshire puddings. They look and taste nearly identical to a good Yorkshire pudding. And the method used to make them is also identical. The only way I can see in which they are like a pancake is that you often see them served with powdered sugar, maple syrup, and or various fruit compotes much like you would do with a pancake. In they end, whether you consider them a sweet Yorkshire pudding or a puffy pancake doesn't really matter. They're delicious either way.

I was a bit nervous about trying one of these. I've watched my dad make Yorkshire puddings for years. They're always amazingly delicious! He follows a very specific recipe and procedure for them. The ratio of wet to dry ingredients has to be just so. Everything has to be room temperature when you make the batter. (No cold eggs out of the fridge, please!) And the butter and pan has to be hot-hot. If you don't get all of these elements right, your puddings won't puff like they should. So, needless to say, I was a little nervous about trying a Dutch baby for the first time. Especially since every recipe I looked at listed different ratios of ingredients, different pan sizes, different amounts of butter, different baking times and temperatures, and different mixing procedures! In the end, I decided to go with the one that looked most Yorkshire pudding-y and hope for the best. And, all-in-all, I think it worked out pretty well!

I think I'd shorten the baking time slightly next time and maybe use a tiny bit less butter in the pan but, other than that, I'm really happy with the results! It puffed up beautifully and tasted very Yorkshire pudding-y. The bottom tasted ever so slightly burnt and there seemed to be a bit of excess butter left in the bottom of the pan after baking, but I think it won't take more than a couple very slight tweaks to deal with that. I also think it'd be interesting to try some of the variations that involve baking fruit right into the pudding. Maybe I'll give that a go next time.

Dutch Baby

Slightly adapted from NYT Cooking

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. whole milk², room temperature
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 c. flour¹
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp. unsalted butter³

Topping Ideas

• icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• maple syrup
• sugar & lemon juice
• fruit syrup or compote
• jam

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Set eggs and milk on top of stove to help warm them up while the oven preheats.
2. If milk and eggs are still cool by the time the oven preheats, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes and warm the milk in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until both are roughly room temperature.
3. Combine flour and sugar.
4. Whisk the eggs and milk into the dry ingredients.
5. Drop the butter into a 25cm (10") oven-safe skillet or Dutch oven⁴ and place it into the preheated oven for 3-5 minutes. (Enough time for the butter to melt and get good and hot, but not so long that it burns. Keep a close eye on it.)
6. Pour the batter over the hot butter and immediately return to the oven. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15-20 minutes⁵.
7. Reduce temperature to 150°C (300°F) and bake for another 5 minutes.
8. Remove from oven (it will begin to deflate as soon as it comes out), cut into wedges, and serve with whatever toppings you prefer.

The Kidlet had her portion with icing sugar. TF and I opted for a blueberry topping. I'm not sure if this is technically a blueberry syrup or a compote or what. It was definitely tasty!

Blueberry Topping

Ingredients

• 1 c. frozen blueberries
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider or 1 tsp. lemon juice + 2-3 tsp. water
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine blueberries, sugar, cinnamon (if using), and cider/juice/water and cook over medium heat until blueberries are thawed and some liquid has been released.
2. Sprinkle in cornstarch and keep cooking until sauce reaches desired consistency.
3. Remove from heat and stir in butter.

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¹ I used all-purpose flour, but I think soft (plain/pastry/standard) flour would also work here. ^Back
2 I used whole (3.25%) milk, but I suspect other fat percentages would also work. I may try it with 1% next time and see how it turns out. ^Back
3 Most of the recipes I looked at seemed to call for 2 Tbsp. of butter for (approximately) the same amount of batter. The NYT recipe called for 4 Tbsp. I used the full 4 Tbsp. this time, but I think it probably could've done with a bit less. I'll try 3 next time and see how it goes. (Unless I decide to do one of the fruit-y variants, in which case I'll probably stick with the larger amount of butter and just cook the fruit down in the butter with a little sugar.) ^Back
4 Most of the recipes I came across called for a 10" cast iron skillet. One called for an 8" skillet (for approximately the same quantity of batter). I used my Dutch oven, which is probably about 10" in diameter with a slightly rounded bottom. I'd be curious to try it in an 8" (20cm) pan though and see what difference it makes to the final result. ^Back
5 The original recipe calls for baking it at 425°F for 20 minutes. I felt that it was slightly overdone. I think I'll try 15 minutes at 425°F next time and see what sort of results that yields. ^Back