dutch baby

this is a picture of my best dutch baby yet...
in the pan that pam gave me.

the story behind my dutch baby...

many many years ago now, i used to live with my ex boyfriend and his mother. she is one of the kindest and most generous people i have ever met. she totally took care of me like i was her daughter. i must have lived there for about two years and during that time we would do crafts together and cook together often. two things i love to do! she's the one who taught me how to crochet and cross-stitch and i still have things that she made for me to this day...for example my Christmas stocking!

one of the dishes i would look forward to her making is the 'dutch baby'. i never had one or heard of one until she made it one morning for breakfast...and i was hooked. this was waaaaay back when i was just learning to cook, so i mostly did the watching and eating, not much of the cooking. so, long story short not only did i fall in love with eating dutch babies i came to covet the dish she used to make it in (this probably being where my addiction to kitchen gadgets and cookware started). so you can imagine how delighted i was when i moved out on my own that among some of the things she gave to me was the coveted dutch baby pan!

the strange thing is that i never used that pan or made a dutch baby in my life until about 2 weekends ago. i just woke up one morning craving one...a short 13 years later...jumped online to look up recipes...combined what i liked from various recipes...and got to work. the first one turned out very flat. the second one was much better...but not perfect, so i admit i became a little discouraged and was pretty much over the initial high of trying to make this part of our breakfast rotation.

3 year old daughter to the rescue! i open my eyes this morning to my little girl laying on the pillow facing me...eyes wide open and waiting for me to wake up. first thing out of her mouth, 'mommy i'm hungry, i want a ditch baby.' that's all the encouragement i needed. and today's dutch baby came out perfect!

6 eggs (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
1 cup flour (sifted)
salt to taste
4 tbs. butter
dash of nutmeg
powdered sugar and syrup for serving

1. preheat oven to 470°F. put oven save 10 inch pan in the oven to heat.

2. blend eggs in blender for 10 seconds until liquid is a custard yellow color.

3. add half of the milk and blend for a couple more seconds. add rest of the milk and blend for a couple more seconds.

4. add half of the flour and blend for a couple seconds. add the rest of the flour blend for a couple seconds. (i usually add the salt here...with the flour)

5. take pan out of the oven and reduce oven temp to 400°F.

6. put butter in the hot pan. it will melt quickly. once melted sprinkle with nutmeg.

7. slowly and gently pour the batter into the pan. bake for 15 minutes.

8. sprinkle with powdered sugar. serve immediately with syrup.

Tips: the eggs and milk absolutely must be at room temperature or your dutch baby will come out flat. i let the eggs and milk sit out for 30 minutes then put the eggs in a bowl of hot water from the tap for another 5 minutes and microwave the milk for 25 seconds on high. sifting the flour is highly recommended because it also adds to the fluffiness and poofiness of the dutch baby. for the blending i have this mini blender that i use, the magic bullet (i know it sounds funny...haha), i'm pretty sure any blender will work fine, but if you choose to use a hand mixer or whisk you may have to work harder on getting the correct consistency. be ready to serve this immediately because it does start to flatten out a bit once it cools. it's just as good the next day reheated in the microwave (: