Friday, February 24, 2012

orange sugar dutch baby - a giant oven pancake

orange sugar dutch baby.... those words just make me feel happy.


the keystone of hubs' and my splendid valentine's brunch, this giant zesty pancake was an absolute treat. i was originally inspired to make a dutch baby by this post on posy gets cozy. i liked the citrus tones of the recipe she linked, but i chose this recipe as my foundation, instead, because i trust alton brown with my (culinary) life and the cooking temperature would allow me to make oven-fried bacon at the same time (instructions for that coming soon!).

but, i did want to keep the lively citrus notes (although i had oranges on hand, not lemons), and i did not have vanilla sugar, so i had to make a few changes to the recipe... and hubs and i were really pleased with the results!



ingredients

dutch baby

  • 2 tablespoons butter, cold is fine
  • 1 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 3/8 ounces unbleached white flour (about 1/2 a cup, but i really recommend weighing your flour whenever possible)
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 c milk, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon (good quality) vanilla extract
  • half the zest from one orange (check out my post on how to zest an orange if you need help)


toppings

  • the other half the zest from one orange
  • couple drops vanilla extract
  • 5 tablespoons sugar
  • orange fruit, sliced thickly, then quartered


serves (let's be honest here...) two richly, four modestly

preparation
preheat oven to 375 degrees F
drop two tablespoons of butter in 10 inch cast iron skillet, and place the skillet in the oven. you want it to be super hot by the time you add the ingredients, so let it warm with the oven while it preheats and then stay in there for another ten minutes after the oven is finished preheating. plan the preparation of your ingredients accordingly.

combine in a bowl: flour, salt, sugar.

combine in a bowl (or be like me and use a pyrex cup) milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and orange zest. whisk until smooth and egg is fully combined. if you don't have a little cute teeny tiny whisk like this you should get one.
(ohmygoodness this smells like a creamsicle) 

:::before you carry out the next step, be ready to take the very hot skillet out of the oven and add your ingredients.:::

pour dry ingredients into a food processor, followed by milk/eggs mixture, followed by butter. process for 30 seconds, until perfectly smooth.



remove skillet from oven (see all the good blackened browned butter bits floating in the hot grease? these are your flavorful friends)

ready for this part? it's so fun.
slowly/gently/carefully pour batter into center of skillet, letting the batter float on top of a cushion of browned butter. the butter will rise up the sides of the pan to keep it happily greased and non-stick-tastic

now gently place the skillet back into the oven. it should take at least 15 but up to 30 minutes to cook. it is ready when the edges are "puffed and brown" and the top is golden to your liking.

she nuh ready yet
while the dutch baby is in the oven (that sounds horrible!!) prep your toppings.
place the sugar in a little bowl, add the remaining orange zest, mix well. add a couple drops of vanilla extract, and mix well.

now slice the orange that you zested (waste not/want breakfast not) into thick slices and quarter them. or slice them however you like to make them good for squeezing over giant oven pancake slices. my husband tried to explain the right way to slice an orange for this purpose but i didn't quite follow so next time this part will be his job.

when the dutch baby is ready, remove it from the oven.



while it is still hot, sprinkle some of your orange-sugar over it (but leave enough for guests to add more to their own slices). now squeeze some orange sections over it, aiming for the particularly well browned sections and letting it roll down to make lovely little pools of orange syrup in the valleys.





serve as hot as possible, with the orange slices and orange sugar alongside. make sure you give the orange sugar another good stir before serving. you might also wish to serve it with a very cute little bunny spoon...



we quartered it and added more orange sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice once it was on our plates. maybe you're supposed to eat it with a fork and knife, but we quickly discovered you can eat the slices bent in half in your hands like a good new york pizza. so good!

i'd love to try this with grapefruit zest next... what other fruity flavors would you like to see in it?


this pancake was served with our splendid 
valentines day brunch menu
orange sugar dutch baby (you are here)

2 comments:

  1. Irene! Thanks so much for posting this in your comment on the Kitchn! I have never before heard of a "dutch baby," but now I have the biggest craving for one, I can't get it out of my mind! I'm not much of a cook, but your descriptions are so great, I feel like I can handle this - will definitely be trying this!

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    Replies
    1. thanks for visiting! i hope this encourages you try something new.. really, it's so easy, and any recipe with this much butter is going to turn out delicious, no matter what! i made it with grapefruit for my inlaws this past weekend, and it was good that way too.

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