Pumpkin Dutch Baby

My good friend Lindsay pointed me to a new food blog the other day -- Baking Bites -- and I've been printing recipes to try since I found it. We tried the first recipe this morning for breakfast and it was quite yummy. Nicole from Baking Bites calls puffed oven pancakes Dutch Babies. My mom would make them every now and again when I was a kid and we always called them German pancakes. If you've never had them they are easy to make and a nice alternative to regular pancakes. In fact, I think they're much easier to make than regular pancakes since I have problems with running the top of the stove. Just preheat the oven and the oven proof pan, mix all the ingredients, grease pan, throw the batter in the pan and put the whole thing in the oven for 15 minutes. Totally easy.

Dutch Babies/German Pancakes/Oven Pancakes -- whatever you want to call them, the batter puffs up while they are baking so when you pull them out of the oven they are domed and puffy, then they collapse on themselves leaving two layers with a slightly custard-y inside. This version calls for pumpkin (I used canned) so it didn't puff quite as much as it would have normally, but it didn't matter, they were delicious and it was the first time Chris has had a German pancake. :)



Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Place oven-proof 6 or 8 inch frying pan (stainless steel or cast iron) in the oven to heat for about 5 minutes.

Whisk all ingredients until smooth.

Remove pan from oven and spray with nonstick spray or brush it with some butter, then pour the batter into the hot pan and put it back into the oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the Dutch Baby is golden brown. Slide from the pan onto a large plate and serve immediately with lots of maple syrup. Serves 1-2.