If a Popover Married a Donut . . .

it emanates an almost holy light. oh wait, that's just the oven bulb.

. . . their baby might taste like this. Or look like this.

People, it’s time to jump ship on making pancakes. I mean, really. Mixing, sifting, there might be baking powder or was that soda, tempering butter into eggs, or was that vice versa. Keeping wet and dry separate?

Versus the Dutch Baby, which has SO MUCH going for it. Basically it’s an oven-baked buttery eggy puff pancake that is somehow redolent of a donut in yorkshire pudding format. I tried to fit more adjectives into that sentence and it just doesn’t work: you need to taste it.

It takes a bit of time in the oven, but the prep is lickity split —perhaps one minute of prep — and while it cooks you can either lay on the couch painting your toenails, or you can wipe day-old hummus out of your child’s neckfolds, depending on how you like to spend your free time.

I posted the other day about my own kid kissing me on the mouth, and chances are good that all this love is due to the fact that on 2 separate days we slept late and then got up and ate Dutch Babies rather than oatmeal.

I got the best DB recipe I have found from Sugarpea on RecipeZaar, who claims, in her profile, to dislike liver, oysters, mint, dill, and licorice. That’s a whole lot to not eat, Sugarpea! But I really like that one of her recipes is called Brussel Sprouts Mojo, because her husband sometimes invents dishes and whatever he invents is called whatever the ingredients are, plus “mojo.”

Anyhow Sugarpea points out that B & B’s make Dutch Babies because they are sure-fire: I think they make them because they are EASY. I’ll give you the broad strokes below but you might want to save her recipe in your bookmarks since her timing is a bit different, plus she believes in measuring the vanilla.

Dutch Baby

Serves me and my husband or me and my baby.

Oven to 450.

Mix in one bowl with a whisk:

3/4 C milk

1/2 C flour

this baby is faking nonchalance, but he did act impressed. i swear.

2 eggs

1.5 T sugar

Vanilla

Salt if you are using unsalted butter.

A few minutes before the oven is at 450, put 3T butter in bottom of a cast-iron skillet. Not a huge skillet, not a tiny one. Maybe 9 inches? You can also use a pie plate. Let the butter melt, then brush it around the side of the pan. Put whisked ingredients into the pan. Put the pan into the oven, cook for

maybe 18 minutes, reduce heat to 350, then cook for about 8 more minutes.

Remove, gaze with wonder upon your delightful puffy and beguiling breakfast, saying “Whoa” a bunch of times if you are us, dust with confectioner sugar if you feel like it, and serve however you like. We served with sliced strawberries but try berries, apples, chocolate, nutella, lemon juice, bananas, maple syrup. Go forth and go nuts!