As you might know already, these Dutch Babies (German Pancakes, Big Yorkies or whatever else they’re called) have quickly become a tradition at Casa Radu in the past few months. We love and cherish them, it is the kind of breakfast which brings a big smile to your face regardless how dark or how sunny is the weather outside or inside the house. Once I discovered, slightly adapted and cooked this recipe from NYT Cooking, we were hopelessly hooked. Beware, it is highly addictive so help you God if you try it. This time around I decided to document this recipe in a bit more detail for future reference, mine and yours. I’m not set up to do any videos in my kitchen, I’m not particularly adept at it, so pictures it is, a wee more descriptive this time around. Last chance to turn back, OK? No? Here goes!

If we split the list in the respective categories, the list of ingredients it’s not all that extensive after all and the most important ones are the ones for the batter itself. Those components are written in stone irrespective if you decide to make it sweet or savory, we’re talking about flour, milk, half a cup of each and 3 eggs. The second category is represented by the batter’s overall taste and aroma. In terms of taste is simple, we either make it sweet or savory, how much it is up to you to decide. I typically use a teaspoon of raw plantation sugar in my batter. Once that’s set, the whole world of aromas literally open up for you. Anything you fancy, you can also try, by itself or in combinations. Rosemary, thyme, cardamom, vanilla, mint, rum extract … shall I go on? The third category is the topping. Here anything goes as well. Chorizo, tomatoes, feta, ham, ricotta, bacon? Berries, banana, dates, apricots, peaches, pineapple ? Just a dusting of icing sugar or a sprinkle of maple syrup? Name your pick as pretty much anything and any combination tickling your fancy will either work or it is worth trying once. Are you looking for the perfect vehicle for your personal tastes, your genius or your madness in the kitchen (sometimes the difference between the two is only a matter of perspective) ? A Dutch Baby will serve you well in this respect. Damn, now I’m hungry !

The absolute easiest way of making the batter is a blender but a food processor/ mixer or simply some elbow grease will do as well, as long as the result is a smooth, silky batter. The recipe calls for regular skim milk but I tend to use some with significantly higher fat content as I like the nice creamy results it yields. In this case I simply mix 10% half-half with 35% cooking cream in equal proportions. You could use 35% cream but the blender tends to whip that rather quickly and you may end up with some form of whipped cream of some sort. If you decide on high fat milk it is probably better to whisk the batter manually. My “milk” combination doesn’t lead to any whipping however, it’s been tested repeatedly. While the oven preheats I usually mix the sugar and aromas in the milk and let them infuse. A few pulses in the blender it’s all it takes for the batter to come together. Perfection!

You can cook the Dutch Baby in pretty much any oven proof nonstick cookware but the best option here is, by a fair margin, a cast iron skillet. The main disadvantage of it, its ton of unwieldy mass, becomes its main advantage. That much mass also has a LOT of thermal inertia. Once pre-heated to 425F in the oven, anything you throw in it will start cooking immediately. Here we’re melting butter and we swirl it around nicely so it coats well all the skillet’s interior, sidewall included. In fact, the butter starts bubbling the very instant it hits the pan. That’s what we want anyway.

The same thermal inertia helps immensely in this step as well. The batter starts cooking as soon as it hits the pan. The batter would suck up the heat from any thinner, lighter cookware and the process would undoubtedly take much longer. The end result would still be good, I have no reason to think otherwise but I can only venture a more or less educated guess here … I haven’t tried. Anyway we set the skillet back in the oven at 400-425F for around 6-8 minutes.

In 6-8 minutes the pancake will reach for the sky! Look at him go! It looks nicely golden but it needs to stay inside with the heat switched off for another minute or so. It needs this time to “relax” and retract from the skillet’s sidewalls, while any of the still uncooked batter is set by the residual heat. A little bit of patience pays off here… stay strong please, we’re on the home stretch!

Once out of the oven we can see how well the baby had retracted from the walls and released the skillet’s bottom. We can cut it here or take it out on a board, it will come out with absolutely no issues.

Now it would be the time to load it up to the max with whatever you feel like. Here we have blueberries, gooseberries and Ile d’Orléans strawberries, sprinkled generously with maple syrup and topped with wild mint from our backyard. Tell me this doesn’t brightens your eyes, doesn’t tickle your senses and doesn’t put a big grin on your mug! As breakfasts go, I can’t think of anything better. Awesomeness!