Divas on a Dime: The little pancakes that deliver big flavor

What is a Dutch Baby Pancake? Dutch baby is a light, eggy pancake with delicious buttery-crusty edges that’s usually baked in the oven in a cast-iron skillet. It’s also called German Pancake, Bismarck, or Dutch Puff, but this is actually an American invention. Like a popover or Yorkshire pudding, it’s made with a simple batter and they’re great any time of the day, breakfast, brunch, lunch, or as a dessert.

I’ve adapted this recipe to make “Baby” Dutch Baby Pancakes. Just whip up the batter, pour it into a muffin tin and bake cute little individual pancakes.

This is fun and extremely easy considering how dramatic and mouthwateringly beautiful they look when they come out of the oven.

Purists top them with powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon and that’s simply perfection. The centers are rich, like egg custard and provide the perfect vehicle to fill with fresh fruit, jam, or yogurt. Or go savory with bacon crumbles, ham, cheese or avocado.

This recipe can be made sweet or savory. You’ll see in the recipe there’s a range of salt and sugar. If you’re making them savory, use the higher amount of salt and less sugar, use more sugar and less salt to make them sweet.

BABY DUTCH BABIES

What You’ll Need:

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ to 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon to ¼ cup sugar

4 tablespoons butter – melted – divided

1 teaspoon vanilla for sweet pancakes

Assorted toppings

Here’s How:

Let the eggs and milk come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place your 12-well muffin tin on a baking sheet and place it in the oven while it preheats. You want it screaming hot.

Melt butter in the microwave, divide about half into another container, leaving the milk solids that settle to the bottom to be used in the batter; the remainder will be brushed into the muffin tin later.

In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and blend until smooth with no lumps, 30 to 45 seconds.

When the oven is hot, working carefully and quickly, remove the muffin tin and divide remaining butter between the wells and immediately pour the batter into the buttered muffin tin, filling each well about half full. Place it into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until deep golden brown in color and all puffed up on the edges.

These will begin to deflate when you remove them from the oven. So, have your camera ready for that most Instagram worthy of moments when you first open the oven and see the beautiful golden puff that is a Dutch baby.

A savory variation that’s a family fave is to sprinkle a little canned mild green chilies and shredded pepper jack cheese right on the batter before you bake it.

A sweet variation is Nutella blended with whipped cream and sliced banana on top of the baked pancakes.

Pancakes have never been more fun. I mean, who doesn’t love little foods with big flavors?

Fabulous Food by Patti Diamond from “Divas On A Dime – Where Frugal, Meets Fabulous!” - www.divasonadime.com Join the conversation on Facebook at DivasOnADimeDotCom.