I was recently talking with some friends about summertime desserts. Mainly about how much I love them. Got a cobbler? Send it right on over! Peach pie is divine! Plum cake? Superb! And then I mentioned an old stand-by for me– the clafoutis. No crust to beat down with a rolling pin, it uses whatever fruit of the season you choose, not quite a cake, not quite a custard. Simple, delicious, and my own prerequisite, great for breakfast the next day. The clafoutis is pretty close to perfect.
One of the conversation’s participants, Seth, had never heard of the clafoutis, much less eaten one (don’t worry, that will be remedied), but he asked if they were anything like a dutch baby. Well that opened up an entirely new can of worms, as some people had never eaten those either. I know, I know, what a culinary conundrum, and a fascinating conversation for a Saturday night. I went on to explain the differences between a clafoutis and a dutch baby (a clafoutis has a different proportion of egg to flour to milk, and its sweeter and denser). Seth went on tell us this:
When he was in high school, and the first snow of the season would fall, he and all of his guy friends, knock-kneed and skinny, would not go to movies. Nor did any of these boys have girlfriends to cuddle up with. They would collect, en masse, at each others house, play Dungeons and Dragons for hours, and as the clock struck midnight, and the boys got ravenously hungry, they would mix up a batch of dutch babies. Quickly, they wolfed them down, as teenage boys are wont to do, dusted with powdered sugar. “Yes, that’s what nerdy boys did in the ’80′s in Westchester County.” Seth shrugged, resting his hand on his lovely wife’s shoulder, clearly pleased that those days of torment, pegged jeans, and heavy metal hair bands were far behind him.
Well, all I could say was, if I ever knew a boy that made dutch babies as his recreational activity in high school– I would have swooned. But I guess that goes to show, one person’s frog, is another’s prince charming. And all of that talk about eggs, fruit, and oven pancakes, got me thinking about dutch babies, and wondering why I hadn’t made one in quite some time. So I made a seasonal version of the baby– one with a sliced peach sauteed in the pan, kissed with sugar, and lightly tossed in cinnamon.
This dutch baby was a divine alternative to the standard, plain, or the more wintry version with sauteed apple. The peaches were delicate and sweet, the pancake eggy and neutral, and puffed up, hot from the oven– pretty darn impressive. I ate mine with a dollop of vanilla yogurt. Yum.
Peach Dutch Baby
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
pinch salt
1 peach, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs until well-blended and a bit frothy, about 1 minutes. Sift in flour, and blend until smooth. Add pinch of salt, and milk, and mix well. Set aside.
In a 9-inch, cast iron skillet melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. When foam subsides, add the peach slices. Saute until warmed through. Add the brown sugar, and the cinnamon, continue to saute until sugar is melted and the peach begins to soften. Add the additional 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and melt completely.
Pour in the egg mixture, making sure that the peaches are evenly dispersed. Bake in a preheated, 425 degree oven, for 20 minutes. Pancake should be puffy and brown, and will fall somewhat upon removing from the oven.
