Breakfast the German Pancake Way

Christmas time is still in the air and it feels like I've eaten about 300 cookies in the last 3 weeks. Fortunately, there have been several big highlights away from the sweets, too, and those are worth writing about. Christmas Eve dinner featured a big, honking, dry-aged ribeye cooked to perfection (with just a little setting the smoke detectors off, and the alarm company calling to check on us). The steak, topped off with Maytag blue cheese and paired with my secret recipe sauteed spinach and a nice Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, made it hard to beat. Being the troopers were are though, we tried to beat that meal with one the next morning anyway.

Christmas breakfast was a prelude to my New Year's resolution: eat breakfast out more often! Despite this, our Christmas breakfast was cooked at home though and featured German pancakes done two ways: savory and sweet. We made one giant pancake with sausage, bacon, a little onion, and cheese on top and just before that one was done, we threw a smaller one in the oven to be served with maple syrup. If you haven't had a German pancake before (aka Dutch Baby in some parts) it's super easy and worth every morsel even if you have to go to the gym to sweat it off for an hour or so. Be forewarned: the very hot oven and buttery skillet may set your smoke detector off!

German Pancake

Here's a recipe for a basic batter to make a savory pancake that will serve 4 or more depending on how much savory goodness you pile on top:

6 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup milk (room temperature)
1 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour
2-4 TBSP butter for cooking the pancake(s)
A good heavy skillet such as cast-iron or similar (not non-stick)
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Assorted cooked sausage, bacon, onions, cheese, etc.

Preheat the oven with the heavy skillet inside to 450. A good cast-iron skillet is great for this but any heavy (not non-stick) low-sided skillet will do.

In a blender or with a whisk, mix the eggs, milk, and flour until smooth and well-blended. If you are using all of this batter for the savory pancake, season the batter with salt and pepper.

For cooking the pancake, pull the hot skillet from the oven and add at least 2 or more tablespoons butter, swirling it around to melt and spread evenly. Add the pancake batter and place the skillet back in the oven. Let it bake for 15-25 minutes, depending on size. The pancake is done when it puffs up high and turns golden brown. Just about the time it's finished, we added our cooked sausage, bacon, and cheese and placed it back in the oven for 2-4 minutes to melt the cheese.

For a sweet pancake: Take the same batter recipe and don't add any salt and pepper but do add 2 TBSP sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and mix well. Bake as above and when finished, drizzle fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar over the top or just serve warm with butter, syrup, fruit, jam, or whipped cream.

To make one savory and one sweet pancake: split the batter in half once it's blended and then add salt and pepper to half the batch. To the other half, add 1 TBSP sugar and about 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Cook as above but note the smaller pancakes will cook faster so check them after 15 minutes.