German Puffed Pancakes

Does the weather impact your food choices?  For two days we reached the 70s last week, but over the weekend, we were back in blowing snow.  While I should have been thinking salad, I really wanted something warm and comforting.

I grew up with German pancakes, which I'll blog about sometime.  But my mom never made these German or Dutch puffy pancakes.  It wasn't until I was an adult and happened upon a recipe for them that I tried them.

The recipe makes one pancake that puffs up in the oven.  Bring it to the table immediately since it's lovely to look at but deflates quite quickly.  Cut into 4 pieces and serve while hot.

It makes a nice breakfast, a second course or dessert with a light dinner, an after school snack on cold days, or a quick midnight snack for those nights when no one can sleep.

Recipes for this kind of pancake vary wildly, which suggests to me that there's really no wrong way of making them.  A lot of the older recipes call for beating the egg whites separately and folding them into the rest of the batter.  But that's getting out of the range of quick and easy recipes, which is what I think this one should be.

THE JOY OF COOKING calls for four to five eggs.  Other recipes call for one egg and a yolk.  Some recipes call for 1/2 cup of butter, but I think that's overkill.  Interestingly, the amount of flour and liquids don't vary much.  Let's face it, eggs, milk, and flour equal pancakes.

I used three eggs here, but you'll notice that the recipe says two to three eggs.  Mine were huge, and next time I'll only use two of those gigantic eggs.  This recipe also calls for blueberries, but you can use other berries, or none at all.  There's not much sugar in these, so you might want to eat them with fruit, jam, maple syrup, or (shh!) a scoop of ice cream.

What doesn't vary is that the pan must be hot when you add the batter.  While you might be tempted to cut back on the butter, don't cut back much!

And don't forget to use an oven mitt!

German Puffed Pancake

2 tablespoons butter
2-3 eggs (3 small or 2 large)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
dash nutmeg or cinnamon
dash salt
splash vanilla
1 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 lemon
1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 10-inch oven-safe omelet pan


Preheat the oven to 425. Place the butter in the oven-safe pan and insert in oven. (Don't let the butter burn.)

Whisk the eggs until blended and a bit frothy.  Whisk in the milk, flour, nutmeg or cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.  Stir in blueberries.

Roll the melted butter around in the pan and return to oven for a couple of minutes.  When pan is hot, pour in batter and slide pan into oven.  Bake about 20 minutes or until puffed up with golden edges.

Meanwhile, get the powdered sugar and lemon ready because you'll want to work fast when it comes out of the oven.

When baked, squeeze lemon over pancake and sift powdered sugar on the top.  Cut into four pieces and serve.