buckwheat dutch baby pancakes

When I was in graduate school, we were lucky to have not one but two absolutely amazing breakfast places in our small college town.  Both serving food that was locally sourced, fresh and very innovative.  All of this quite before it became such a popular movement.  And as it happens when one is young, I took it for granted and assumed all those wonderful foods would always be available to me on demand.  Time passed and we moved away to other places and other experiences, but to this day I think of the carrot muffins from one of them and the buckwheat waffles from the other.

During a recent pantry cleaning spree, I came across an almost full bag of buckwheat flour that I had bought wanting to experiment with some alternative flours.  Almost immediately, those buckwheat waffles topped with fresh berries and sliced kiwi came to mind.  Since I don’t own a waffle iron, I was thinking of ways to duplicate that crispy exterior and soft inside.  And the Dutch Baby pancakes looked like the closest compromise.   Am not sure how they got their name since these are originally German and bear some resemblance to a popover!  In fact, the first time I had these pancakes was in a German restaurant in Buffalo, NY …..a huge pancake that came topped with apples and impossible to finish!

They are quite the show-stopper though.  Puffing up like a balloon in the oven, with a golden brown crispy crust and pretty spectacular looking, whether made in a large pan or small.  And if you are making it for company, make sure you have everyone waiting to greet the pan as it comes out of the oven because the pancake deflates soon after that.  But even in its resting state, still a sight to behold!

The batter also comes together very easily…….made even simpler by using a blender.  Just throw in all the ingredients and blend until mixed together.  You can also experiment with different flours.  Since buckwheat is a gluten-free flour, the rise isn’t quite as high as when made completely with all-purpose flour.  I did add some all-purpose flour since I did not want to risk them being entirely flat.  It also helps to use cast-iron skillets to bake these, but any metal oven-safe one should work.

Traditionally served with some fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar, you can get pretty creative with your choice of toppings.  Since it is Spring and the market is flooded with all kinds of sweet berries, I chose to top these pancakes with them.  In addition, I made a sauce of strawberries pureed with some maple syrup for just that extra touch of sweetness.  The maple syrup turned the sauce into a pretty dusty-pink color but you can use regular sugar or any other sweetener of your choice.  I would think some stone-fruit would be great in summer.  Maybe as a compote or even grilled with a light sprinkle of sugar.

Once I was done photographing these beauties, I piled the pancake high with berries, poured oodles of the strawberry sauce and enjoyed it with a cup of strong coffee.  Highly recommended having it that way 🙂

(makes three 6-inch or one 12-inch pancake)

Printable Recipe

Pancakes:

1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp buckwheat flour

1/4 cup minus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

3/4 cup 2% or whole milk

2 tsp sugar (I used jaggery)

1 tbsp melted butter
zest of an orange

a pinch of salt
3 tsp butter
berries/fruit for toppingMix all the ingredients for the batter.  I simply added everything in the blender and ran it until I got a smooth batter.  Very quick and easy 🙂  If you are not using a blender, whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until a little foamy.  Add the milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and orange zest and whisk until foamy.  Then add the flours and mix until you get a smooth batter.  Let the batter rest for half an hour.While the batter is resting, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with a rack in the center.  Once it reaches that temperature, place the large cast-iron skillet or the smaller ones in the oven and let them heat up for about 5 minutes.Add a tsp of butter to each of skillets if using small or in the large one and put it back in the oven.  Let the butter melt – this should take about a minute.

Slide the rack with the skillets and pour in the batter.  The pans should be very hot and the batter should sizzle.  You can also take the skillets out and pour the batter and put it back into the oven, but make sure you do it quickly.

The pancake will start rising and get puffy.  Bake until it is all puffed up and golden brown on top.  The mini-skillets take about 12-15 minutes.  A quick note about this step:  Make sure the skillets are in the hottest parts of the oven. My oven has an area in the top-left that seems to be cooler than the rest.  I now know to avoid that area 🙂

Remove from the oven and slide them onto a plate.  They will slip off very easily.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and top with fruit/lemon juice &
melted butter or any topping of your choice!

2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries

1/4 cup maple syrup

Blend the strawberries to a puree and heat on stove or microwave until it comes to a boil.  Add the maple syrup and cook for another minute.  Cool and serve.