Mystery
writers often ask themselves "what if I…" particularly when they're
stuck on a plot point. What if I add an evil twin? What if the gun is hidden in the flour bin?
What if the victim is not really dead?
I'm always
on the lookout for apple recipes, and I have been for years. Some of them I never even tried—just filed
them away for some future date. Seems
like the future has arrived, and I pulled out a recipe for what was called
"Apple Dutch Baby." The dish
is basically sautéed apples with a batter poured over them, and then the whole
thing is baked. I had to look up the history of the term "dutch baby"
but my general impression was that it is kind of a giant pancake with stuff in
it.
The recipe
also reminded me of clafouti, a
traditional French dessert, usually made when the first cherries of the new
harvest (of course Julia Child pointed me to it). It's very similar: fruit-batter-bake.
But in both
cases, the batter is moist and eggy.
That's not a bad thing, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Then I remembered one of my favorite British/Irish
pub dishes, Toad in the Hole. This is savory:
link sausages-batter-bake. We eat that a lot in my household, in part because
the fat from the sausages makes it crunchy (if done right; otherwise it's eggy,
see above).
What if I
combined the two recipes?
Cortland apples |
The first
hurdle that I could see was that the apples, which are sautéed in butter first,
might produce a lot of liquid. It's
important to (a) pick the right apples, that won't turn to watery mush when you
cook them; and (b) cook them well with plenty of butter. Hey, it's a dessert—indulge yourself!
The second
hurdle was adjusting the batter so that it was less eggy, which meant reducing
the number of eggs and increasing the flour.
I also wanted it to be a bit sweet and spicy, so I added some sugar and
some ground cinnamon.
Toad in the
Hole is traditionally made in a skillet or baking pan (it resembles Yorkshire
pudding, which soaks up pan drippings so nothing from a roast is wasted). I am a firm believer in using as few dishes
as possible, since nobody in our family likes to wash dishes, so I opted for
the skillet version—that's a cast-iron skillet, that heats up high and holds
the heat, and can go straight from stovetop to oven.
So here we
go: The
What If Recipe
Preheat the
oven to 400 degrees F.
Batter:
1 cup whole
milk
2 eggs
1 cup white
flour
2 Tblsp
sugar
½ tsp
ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 Tblsp
vanilla extract
1 Tblsp
melted butter
Combine all
the ingredients in a blender or food processor, then blend for a minute (a full
minute—this is important, so time it), right before you're ready to bake.
Apples:
2 Tblsp salted
butter
3 medium
cooking apples (like Cortlands), peeled, cored, and sliced thickly
2 Tblsp
sugar
Melt the
butter in a 9" cast-iron skillet, then add the apples and sauté on
medium-high heat until they begin to brown just a bit. Sprinkle the sugar over them and continue
cooking for a couple more minutes. (If the mixture looks soupy at this point,
drain some of the liquid off.)
When the
apples are just about ready, make the batter.
While the apples are still over the heat on the stove, pour the batter
over them (the batter should sizzle around the edges) and immediately place the
skillet into the preheated oven. Bake
for 30 minutes.
Ready for the oven |
If the
kitchen gods are smiling on you, the batter will puff up and turn golden and
crisp. This is a dish that should be
served as quickly as possible, while it's still warm. You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar if
you want.
It worked! |
I love it when a plot comes together!
This sounds so yummy! I agree with you on the 'egginess' of some recipes. Most crepe recipes are too eggy for me. I plan to make this tonight for desert, it will be a treat after our simple, meatless meal.
ReplyDeleteI used to make a Dutch baby pancake with blueberries that was something like this--it was delish! thanks for the reminder:)
ReplyDelete"What if" is the perfect explanation for how mystery writers (and recipe developers) work, Sheila, and I enjoyed reading the steps of how you came up with this--a nice versatile recipe, too, that we can enjoy for breakfast or dessert. Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteBuried In a Bog was a delight to read and this sounds like a delight to eat. With a nice cup of tea!
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious. I confess that I'm a sucker for almost anything with cooked or baked apples. They're just so good!
ReplyDelete~Krista
Krista, I love the way apples show up in everything--desserts, breakfast, with pork or poultry (hmm, have I seen an apple & fish recipe?) How nice that they're good for us too!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of the term "dutch baby" (which apparently has nothing to do with the Dutch but is a corruption of "deutsch" or German) without recalling a friend, whose father made it a practice of cooking them for breakfast on Sundays--including all the leftovers from Saturday dinner. The results, as you can imagine, were a bit odd.