Poofy Apple Pancake

Usually on days off from work, I'll make something special for breakfast, so almost 1 month ago (yikes, this post is way late) I made an apple pancake/dutch baby hybrid for breakfast. A dutch baby is a popover that's meant to be eaten in the mornings. My particular version had apples in it because I love baked apples and it's an appropriate theme to kick off autumn. This is an awesome recipe if you have guests staying at your house and you want to feed them something special or if you're hosting brunch or if you have a bunch of apples that need to be used. It's pretty impressive when it comes out of the oven.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized apples
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter + 1 tablespoon butter (used in two different places in the recipe)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (or cake flour)
1/2 cup milk
5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
+ 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, for garnish

First things first: wash your hands and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Then prepare the apples. Peel them, chop out the core, remove the little wedge in the middle where the seeds usually are, and then cut into wedges. If you prefer cubes of apple over wedges, then by all means, cube your apples.

Then put one tablespoon of butter into a bowl to be melted (for the batter) and then another tablespoon on the oven safe pan you will be using to both cook the apples and pancake batter.

To the melted butter add salt, sugar, and milk and then whisk to combine. Then add flour and eggs.

Whisk just until the batter comes together. Ignore any lumps.

It may seem like five eggs is a LOT but the eggs are what make the pancake puff up so you need them. Don't worry, it's not going to taste like an omelette. This batter can be made in advance (perhaps the evening before your fancy brunch) and refrigerated.

Set the batter aside while you cook the apples a bit. Warm up the pan until the butter melts and starts to brown. Then add in the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon and toss to coat the apples evenly in butter and sweetness. Keep the pan on low heat so that the sugar doesn't burn.

Let the apples cook, tossing every once in a while, until they're softened and start to get a big of color. Pour the pancake batter over the apples. The batter around the pan will immediately cook up but it'll still be liquid in the middle so be careful with the next step.

Put the whole pan in the oven, being careful not to spill any batter, and bake until the dough is golden brown and puffed up.

I'm not sure if you can tell just how poofy this pancake is. I should have taken a side shot but I didn't (shoulda coulda woulda).

Dust with powdered sugar because it makes it look pretty and it also tastes good. And then serve immediately. The pancake will start to deflate as it cools.

Serve in pretty little triangles. Leave a bottle of maple syrup on the table for anyone who needs a bit more sweetness.

... Or if you're unconcerned about pretty presentation, just scoop a huge portion for yourself and dig in. The batter is light and fluffy and the apples add plenty of sweetness - it's pretty awesome.

And if you need it, here's the recipe page: