I beamed when this German pancake recipe popped up in my inbox back in February, amongst the weekly bouquet of beautifully illustrated recipes served up via Leite’s Culinaria ‘s weekly updates. It’s a breakfast delight I used to make in the petite kitchen of my Greensboro, NC apartment, back when I was home from Peace Corps and teaching 7th grade English and social studies in my nearby hometown of High Point. The friend who shared that recipe called it “German pancake”. Given its simplicity and power to please, I can’t imagine how I ever it slip from my recipe repertoire.
But here it is, from a handsome cookbook, American Flavor, by Andrew Carmellini (Ecco, October 2011). You may have the ingredients (milk, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and vanilla) on hand. While I cherish the basic butter/lemon juice/confectioners’ sugar rendition, people vote for maple syrup, jams and jellies, sauteed apples, and fresh fruit as worthy accompaniments. You whirl those basics into a velvety batter using a blender, making this simple enough to make before you even have your coffee or tea.
Both the recipe and many of the recipe’s commenters on Leite’s Culinaria believe that making this the night before (or about 6 hours ahead) is crucial to avoiding “egginess” and achieving idea Dutch babyhood for the German Pancake. For me, mixing up the batter right before baking not only worked decently, it pleased me much more than the rested version.
My freshly-mixed pancake poofed and puffed up in a kooky, cumulus-cloudy manner (see first two photos at the top of this post). My proper, recipe-adhering-to-which, made-ahead, well-rested pancake came out symmetrical and smooth (above and below these words). Being a fan of the kooky, and finding it lovely rather than eggy, I vote for the buzz-it-up-and-go version myself. The option of making it ahead simplifies the morning feast, so suit yourself. And what’s wrong with eggy? I personally for one consider egginess to be a plus!
You’ll find the German Pancake recipe right HERE, on Leite’s Culinaria. Dutch or German, plain or fancy, lemon-ed or strawberry-ed, I think you will love this recipe, and enter it into your recipe rotation for sweet, slow morning food.
Thank you so much for the balanced “to rest or not to rest” take on this recipe! I’m not a planner, so it’s good to know I don’t have to rest the batter if I don’t want to. (One’s in the oven right this second, actually!)
Slow to find your comment, and I imagine that your very own Dutch baby came out of the oven and onto your table in a good way, days ago. I’m always gnashing my teeth on jumping into a cookie recipe (without reading it through of course) only to find the dreaded words “…Cover and chill for 3 hours or overnight…” Aaaacckkkkk! Sometimes we can just proceed, and sometimes, it really does make or break the dish. Happy cooking, fellow traveller!
I was at a cafe last week and they had both a sweet and a savory Dutch baby on the menu! I naturally thought of you and your post 🙂
Thank you for letting me know this. And savory??? I had not thought of that; I am very provincial about the way a dish is, and need help to see possibilities. I can think, oh, this would be great with a different fruit!, but it had not occurred to me that it would be divine in savory versions.
Since it is time for breakfast it seemed like this was the logical place to say how much I enjoyed getting to know you better at CampBlogaway. Smooch! GREG
You, too, Greg! So glad and honored I got to spend some time with you, and I am so excited to know that your book, “Savory Pies”, is in the works. Making room on my cookbooks shelf.
oh I just love this, I made one years ago and now I wonder why I’m not making one a week. LOOKS wonderful. Think we’ll get these at “camp” this weekend? That would be yummy!
Exactly my first response on remembering it, and validating after making a few batches. Fun, delicious, wacky, simple. This would be a Camp Blogaway Sensation! Thanks for visiting and see you soon in the beautiful Camp Blogaway woods.
Now you’ve brought something back with this lovely written post–‘well-mannered family of four’! I think we’re much too greedy a group to make it stretch this far.
One of my earliest memories is sitting on top of the kitchen counter while our house helper (a German housekeeper named Anna) made us her German pancakes, much like these Dutch babies. Anna came occasionally to help my mom with the four of us kids, and she always made a big fuss over me. Maybe she saw into my future, but she knew she could count on me to ooh and ah over her pancake, always slathered a la Nancie with butter, lemon and powdered sugar.
What a treat this is!
What a pleasure to look over your shoulder into the ‘window’ back to your kitchen-countertop days. Beautiful to think of the people and connections that brought us to this day. And how often food and eating and kitchens play a big part in meaningful memories for me. Thanks for this message.
I love Dutch babies but the only breakfast place where I’ve seen it on the menu is in Seattle, and the restaurant doesn’t even exist anymore :(. Thankfully I found an easy recipe in Gourmet a couple of years back. Do you know the history of Dutch babies?
No, Pat, I haven’t done any research, and there must be a whole array of stories and details on it. Different names, quirky names, goes back decades at least, and it has a commercial life as a diner/coffee shop favorite. I’ve put all my energy thus far into making them, not expanding the body of knowledge!
Looks divine!
Thank you, Amy; and in the case of this dish, looks do not deceive. Thanks for checking out my blog.
This looks so good i saved it on my nook!
Hooray! I predict that you will be very glad you did. And while I have you here, do you love your nook? Thinking about getting one…
That REALLY does look blissful.
It is, my friend. Just too easy to be so wonderful, but that’s a good lesson. Why to I think it would have had to be an ordeal to be good? Easy/good = tomato sandwiches, pasta and cheese, cornbread, edamame beans, eggs over easy (ha ha ha, didn’t see that coming; over EASY, get it?) I will stop, it’s early. But thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope your day is an easy feast of good times.