I’m going to send you into your Easter weekend with a notion of the easiest hot breakfast that seems like you expended lots of energy but which actually took you all of three minutes to prepare: a Dutch baby. Until recently, I had eaten Dutch babies in restaurants (hmm, not quite the statement I prefer making) but never made one at home. I call it a fake pancake because without the flipping and bubble-waiting, it doesn’t seem like hard enough work to deserve the title. But as Vivi said when we sat down to eat them the first time, “It looks like a pancake, it smells like a pancake, and you put syrup on it. It’s a pancake.” Personally, I think she was just relieved to sit down to a food that didn’t involve babies and the Netherlands. Since then, it’s made it onto a near-weekly repertoire.
As with so many of Deb’s recipes, I didn’t need to tinker or alter the gingerbread Dutch baby from the smitten kitchen cookbook (here’s her buckwheat baby). It is perfect as is. A few eggs, some flour, milk, and seasonings, zhushed up in the blender, poured into a skillet, cooked in the oven, and topped with powdered sugar. When you feel like pleasing your family with a special weekend morning treat, you can’t get much easier.
