madcity girl

Since I’m a lover of virtually all sweet breakfast options (pancakes, waffles, granola—you name it), this recipe for a Dutch Baby Pancake, which was featured in a recent Smitten Kitchen blog post, immediately caught my eye. I’ve had lots of pancakes—whole wheat, blueberry, banana, chocolate chip, Swedish—but never the Dutch Baby variety. I was intrigued. And the recipe delivered.

I’ve made this recipe for Buckwheat Baby with Salted Caramel Syrup for breakfast twice in the past week. It’s excellent. I’d recommend making the salted caramel syrup in advance (nice to get that part out of the way to simplify morning-of breakfast preparations). Plus, you need time to sample. The salted caramel sauce is extremely addicting—I guarantee you’ll be “testing” it by the spoonful and pouring it on everything from bowls of ice cream to Cheerios. And I just love how the pancake curls up the edge of the skillet during baking. Very interesting to watch. This is one pancake you don’t want to miss!

Buckwheat Baby with Salted Caramel Syrup (from Smitten Kitchen; makes one 12-inch pancake and 3/4 cup syrup; serves 2 for breakfast or 4 for dessert)

Caramel syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Two pinches flaked or fine sea salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Pancake
3 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Confectioners’ sugar, to dust (optional)
Salted caramel syrup

Make syrup: Melt the sugar over medium to moderately high heat in a larger pot than you think you’ll need–at least two quarts, whisking or stirring the sugar as it melts to ensure it heats evenly. Cook the liquefied sugar to a nice copper color. Add the sea salt and butter and stir until the butter melts. Lower the heat and slowly drizzle in the heavy cream, whisking the whole time. The sauce will foam and hiss; just ignore it and whisk until the sauce is smooth. Set aside until needed. Store in the fridge for up to a week. Rewarm gently to thin it out.

Make pancake: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk the flours, sugar, salt, milk and eggs together in a medium bowl. Leaving a couple lumps behind is fine. Melt butter in a 12-inch cast skillet, preferably cast iron but any heavy ovenproof skillet should work. Roll the butter around a bit so it goes up the sides. Pour in the batter and transfer skillet to the oven. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until the pancake browns lightly at the edges and rumpled. Transfer to a trivet, dust with powdered sugar (if using), drizzle with salted caramel syrup and serve immediately in halves or wedges.

Category: Kristin's Kitchen