A Dutch baby is way better than a real baby. It smells just as good, it’s just as soft and sweet and it really is cute coming out of the oven. Plus it takes way less work, energy and money. It will never criticize your cooking when that baby grows up to be a 7-year old boy and grades it as C+ (the vegetables lower the grade) and compares it to Grandma’s A+ rated Spam, eggs and rice (the processed, canned luncheon meat raises the grade).
Like a real baby, the Dutch Baby is also a miracle in itself for impatient, non-bakers like myself. You take 4 ingredients that you should already have in your pantry: flour, eggs, milk, sugar–and if you don’t, you are not yet a fully evolved adult and probably only have Ikea furniture and a hot plate in your dorm room. Then you mix all the ingredients together and stick everything in a 425 degree over, 20 minutes later you’ve got yourself a Dutch baby.
I suppose the proper way to end this post is to identify one last comparison that once and for all pronounces the real baby superior to the Dutch Baby, because after all, I am a mom.
Enjoy.
Dutch Baby recipe, adapted from NYT Cooking:
INGREDIENTS
* 3 eggs
* ½ cup flour
* ½ cup milk
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
* 4-5 tablespoons butter
* Syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar
PROCEDURE
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar and nutmeg in a blender jar and blend until smooth. Batter may also be mixed by hand.
3. Place butter in a heavy 10-inch cast iron pan, preferably one with a non-stick surface like Le Creuset. As soon as the butter has melted (watch it so it does not burn) add the batter to the pan, return pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake five minutes longer.
4. Remove pancake from oven, cut into wedges and serve at once topped with syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Ubewankenobi 