Dutch baby pancakes

These are so quick and fun, the magic of a dutch baby pancake is the way it puffs up in the oven, but you’ve got to be fast and ready to eat them as soon as they’re cooked as they deflate as soon as they start to cool. An impressive start to your day with fruit compote or even enjoyed as dessert after dinner with ice cream.

The batter is very similar to a Yorkshire pudding batter, you need to make sure that you give it enough time to sit before cooking, this is to help the gluten in the flour to absorb the liquids.

The vanilla is absolutely optional, here I use half a vanilla pod because I use the other half to flavour my whipped double cream. You can always use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.

Ideally you will need to use a cast iron skillet to cook these in as they retain heat really well. If you don’t have one, a heavy duty frying pan will also work as long as it’s oven proof.

Be careful when cooking these as everything gets quite hot! Preheating the pan in the oven first will give the batter a kick start as soon as it’s poured in.

Here I’ve suggested a blueberry compote using frozen blueberries I love the contrast of the sharp blueberries with the sweetened cream and hot Dutch pancake.

These Dutch baby pancakes are so light, once you’ve made them and eaten them for the first time you’ll probably end up adding them to your breakfast repertoire.

Makes 4 x6inch skillets or 1 large 10 inch skillet

Ingredients

120g plain flour

3 large eggs

120ml whole milk

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 pinch of salt

½ vanilla pod (scraped)

-

4 tbsp neutral oil for cooking

Blueberries

150g frozen blueberries

20g caster sugar

Splash of water

Blueberry compote

· In a saucepan put the blueberries, sugar and a splash of water, stir together

· Cook over a medium-low heat for 10 minutes until the blueberries have started to break down

· Take them off the heat and leave them to cool before using

Dutch pancake batter

· In a large bowl stir together the flour, salt and sugar

· Crack the 3 eggs into the middle of the bowl

· Start whisking the eggs, gradually bringing in the flour from the edge of the bowl

· Use the milk and gradually add it to the bowl, whisking well to form a smooth batter without lumps

· Finally whisk in the seeds of ½ a vanilla pod

· Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set aside for 1 hour

To cook

· Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan/ 200 degrees oven

· Place the individual skillets or large skillet into the oven to get hot for 5 minutes

· Remove from the oven and pour 1tsbp of oil into each skillet or a few tbsps of oil into a large skillet

· Divide the batter into the individual skillets or pour into the large one and put into the oven quickly

· Bake for 10-12 minutes for the individuals until they are puffy and golden all over

· If making a large one bake for 18-20 minutes

· These deflate quickly, once cooked remove from the oven

· Dust with icing sugar and serve with the blueberries and some ice cream or crème fraiche/freshly whipped double cream/ sweetened mascarpone

· Eat immediately!