Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Greek Babies

Okay, so I know that I promised a baking blog quite some time ago... but times have changed, and I have been a busy bumble bee. So instead of setting up a completely new blog, I have decided to just post recipes on this one. Starting today!

DAY 1: GREEK (dutch) BABIES!

Definition- sometimes called a German pancake, a Bismarck, or a Dutch puff, is a sweet breakfast dish similar to Yorkshire pudding and derived from the German Apfelpfannkuchen. It is made with eggs, flour and milk, and usually seasoned with vanilla and cinnamon, although occasionally sugar is also added. It is baked in a metal pan and falls soon after being removed from the oven. It is generally served with fresh squeezed lemon, butter, and powdered sugar or fruit toppings or syrup.

I decided to take my own spin off of the traditional recipe, and then bake it different ways for almost 50 straight days to culminate the perfect dutch baby. I am going to post the traditional recipe from allrecipes.com and then give you tips on how to make it your very own batch of deliciousness. It could potentially be a big party in your mouth- maybe even a rave with full on glowsticks.



You can follow this recipe and they will be good. Or you can follow the one below this one for a party in your mouth.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light. Add milk and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, nutmeg and salt.
Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.
Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Altered Recipe:

Ingredients

3 eggs, 1 egg white
1/2 cup milk plus 2 tbsp of milk
1/2 cup (heaping)sifted all-purpose flour. Sifting is not optional!
2 tsp of pure almond extract
2 heaping tbsp of non fat greek yogurt
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar for dusting
Lemon Wedges to squeeze over the top
REAL maple syrup. like from the tree, not Mrs. Butterworth's bosom.

Directions

Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy. Add milk, greek yogurt, almond extract and dash of vanilla extract and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, and salt. I would highly advise simply stirring in the sifted flour with a wooden spoon. If you over stir the mixture, you will over develop the gluten in the flour and the result will be hard and tough babies. But we don't want tough babies, we want greek babies! It is even okay if there are little lumps left in the batter.

Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.
Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 18.5 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with lemon, powdered sugar. I dress mine with lemon, berries and maple syrup.

This is easy to prepare, and is a wonderful pancake alternative!

1 comment:

Mary Ann Frazell said...

Hope you'll make them for your mom!