German Oven Pancakes

For my Catholic readers, Happy Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/National Pancake Day!


According to Wikipedia, Shrove Tuesday or National Pancake Day, pancakes are associated with the day before Lent because rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar had to be used up before the 40 days of fasting.

And also a welcome to Jewcy.com readers! In case my regular readers didn't know (I think I might have one Jewish reader who might know?), I, and Dylan of Eat, Drink, and Be Merry both had recipes featured on Jewcy today in an article titled, "Tuesday Taste Test: Happy Chinese Jew Year." "Never has there been a sweeter love affair than the one between Jews and Chinese food," said writer Helen Jupiter. "In honor of that enduring affection, and also because Chinese New Year is this week, we asked a couple of food bloggers to share their favorite Chinese recipes." I told her Jews probably learned to like Chinese food by default. After all, what else is open on Christmas Day except Chinese restaurants? :P Nonetheless, I offered up my interpretation of Shanghai-style sticky rice siu mai dumplings because they resembled moneybags to bring wealth in the Year of the Rat. The Chinese sausage in the recipe can easily be omitted in keeping with Jewish dietary laws. Haha!

So what's a nice Buddhist girl like me doing on a Jewish website, and giving you a recipe for a Catholic holiday? Food baby! Food unifies people! Don'tcha love it? Well, I don't observe Lent but I did have a pancake recipe in my queue. I had always referred to these as Dutch baby pancakes, ever since I ate my first one long ago in Oregon. Turned out, "Dutch" might have been a mangling of Pennsylvania "Deutsch," which means they really are German.

Isn't it beautiful? The pancake falls quickly after it's taken out of the oven so just imagine how lovely and poofy it looked before I took time to photograph it. Traditionally, these pancakes are served with fruit toppings, syrup, lemon juice, or powdered sugar. I like topping mine with cinnamon-sugar apples so it's almost like eating an apple pie.


German Oven Pancakes 

For pancake, you'll need:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk or soy milk
3 eggs
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tblsp of butter

For cinnamon-sugar apple topping, you'll need:
1 or 2 apples, peeled, quartered, and sliced thinly
1 or 2 tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tblsp butter

Optional: Squeeze lemon juice on pancake instead of a fruit topping. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Peel, quarter, and thinly slice apples. Toss with 1 or 2 tblsps of sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

In a saucepan on medium heat, melt 1 tblsp butter. Add apple-cinnamon mixture and stir every five minutes or so to make sure everything softens evenly.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Place 1 tblsp of butter into cast iron pan, or oven-safe pan. I used a 10-inch cast iron pan for this.

Pop 2 tblsp butter for about 30 seconds into microwave until just melted. Beat in 3 eggs. Then add 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk or soy milk, 2 tsp sugar, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Batter should be smooth. Don't overmix or the batter will be too hard.

Open the oven and with oven-safe mitts, swish the pan so the butter is evenly distributed. Then pour in all of the batter. Don't forget to monitor your cinnamon-apple mixture in the meantime.

At the 12 to 15 minute mark, check and see if your pancake has risen. It should look like the photo below.


Top your pancake with the apple-cinnamon mixture, which should be nicely softened and saucy at this point. Add powdered sugar if you wish. Slice into wedges and serve.


Enjoy!

*****  
1 year ago today, Pupusas with Beans and Cheese.