Dutch baby pancake gets a savory twist
For all the years that I’ve eaten, baked and loved Dutch baby pancakes, I was oblivious to one important thing: their name. Then, recently, a friend told me that her sons “freaked out when I told them we were eating Dutch babies!” I don’t think I had parsed the name before.
In its most usual incarnation, a Dutch baby resembles a sweet popover. It’s a quickly made batter that’s poured into a hot skillet and baked until the edges rise above the sides of the pan, with mountains and valleys in the center. Sometimes a Dutch baby involves sauteed apples; often it involves powdered sugar. Watching it in the oven always involves wonderment, as its rise is spectacular, and typically involves disappointment upon delivery, as a Dutch baby’s belly flattens quickly.
Although the traditional Dutch baby is best known as a breakfast treat or a dessert, my current fave is savory, meant as a nibble with drinks, a brunch dish or a first course at dinner. It has herbs in the batter and scallions on top, and it’s good served with ricotta, sour cream, salsa, grated cheese or a salad.
My dip into the dish’s history revealed that, sweet or savory, the name has nothing to do with Holland and Dutch people but rather with the Pennsylvania Dutch, whose “Dutch” is a corruption of Deutsch (German).
Wikipedia, citing Sunset magazine, says a cafe in Seattle originated the Dutch baby and owned the trademark for it at least as early as 1942. Since then, the pancake has made itself at home all over the country. This is the kind of dish you make once and then make over and over, because it hits all the marks: It’s easy, it looks great, it’s delicious and it’s just about infinitely play-aroundable.
Dutch baby pancakes can be made in a jiffy, but it’s not a bad idea to pay heed to a few guidelines.
• Skillet: Choose a heavy, ovenproof skillet such as an old-fashioned cast-iron skillet or a slightly less old-fashioned enamel-over-cast-iron.
• Technique: The technique of heating the pan and the butter in a hot oven is key to the Dutch baby’s puff. Keep an eye on the butter: It should bubble but not brown.
• Blender: You can mix the batter by hand. But it’s better when you use a blender. You want to be sure the flour is completely incorporated.
• Herbs: Add the herbs only after the batter is smooth. The idea is to blend them into the batter, not to emulsify them. Choose whatever herbs you like or have on hand.
• Batter: When you pour the batter into the hot pan, the butter will be pushed up the sides and may even cover part of the batter, and that’s fine.
• Topping: Lay the scallions over the batter, and don’t fuss with them. You want to get the pan back into the oven as quickly as you can.
• Substitutes: You can swap the scallions for other finely cut vegetables. Think leeks, carrot ribbons, zucchini rounds, broccoli rabe, asparagus, snow peas or lightly steamed broccoli or cauliflower.
• Here and now: Serve the pancake nanoseconds after it comes from the oven. It can go to the table as is or topped with something creamy, cheesy or green. Put a pouf of salad on top, and you’ve got a great brunch/lunch dish.
If you’re Dutch babying for kids, sit them in front of the oven so they can watch the batter rise — it’s like time-lapse animation — and then christen the dish “Magic Pancake.” I think the pancake’s creators would be fine with that. I know the children will be.