Fresh Blackberry Puffed Pancake
This puffed pancake or "Dutch baby" is a favorite breakfast treat in our house. During the summer we love to make this puffy, custardy pancake with fresh berries, like wild blackberries that we go out and pick ourselves. Blueberries and raspberries work great, too. We also make it with apples and other seasonal fruit at different times of year. The kids love to watch this pancake cook through the oven window, since the batter puffs up dramatically as it bakes.
It's actually quite easy to forget to put on your oven mitt when you're moving the hot pan in and out of the oven—I know this from painful experience—so always make sure you have one on you hand before you reach in to grab the skillet handle. Needless to say, this probably isn't a recipe for little ones to help with, but they can with measuring ingredients and mixing the batter.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or even a mix)
- Warm maple syrup or powdered sugar for serving
Directions
Preheat your oven to 450ºF. Put 3 tablespoons butter into a heavy 10-inch ovenproof skillet (cast iron is best) and put in the oven to let the butter melt and the pan heat.
While the pan's in the oven, combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, and eggs, milk, and vanilla in another. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones and whisk until smooth.
Put on an oven mitt and remove the pan from the oven. Pour the batter into the pan all at once, and then sprinkle the berries evenly on top of the batter.
Return the pan to the oven and bake until the pancake is puffed and browned, about 12–15 minutes.
Remove from oven and carefully slide onto a serving plate (you may need a spatula here to loosen the pancake from the skillet). The pancake will be puffed up and browned when you first take it out of the oven, but it will deflate, so make sure everyone gets a good look at it before it does.
Dust with powdered sugar, if desired, and cut into wedges for serving. Serves 4.
