Recipe -- Dutch Baby Pancake

One Thing Leads To Another.    “ In 1986, a long time ago, I was in some restaurant where I was served a Dutch Baby pancake. The waitress told me how to eat it, squirts of lemon and powdered sugar, then roll up and devour.  I fell hungrily in love with Dutch Baby pancakes, weak in the knees even, and I wanted to bake it. So my stomach leading the way I went to Kroch and Bretanno’s Bookstore in Oakbrook, Illinois looking for this particular recipe and found “The Great Pancake Cookbook” by George A. Zabriskie and Sherry LaFollette (Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1985, soft cover).

“I bought the  book, then went in search of the special ‘French’ pan they said was best to make it in.  Where did I go? Williams Sonoma, and this was my first time in the store because up until that moment I had never been exposed to a specialty kitchen store. Fascinated, I signed up for the catalogue and after numerous return trips where they had cookbooks as well as a wide selection of everything kitchen,  I guess my constant voicing admiration of the store caught someone’s attention and I was hired.  Thus, a hunger urge led to a cookbook leading to more cookbooks that led to a job and a career!”

--Excerpt from “Cookbook Passion” by Pamela Kure Grogan   Her book is available at Store/Shop

DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

1/3 stick margarine or butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk     4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 450°F
2. When oven is hot, put margarine in a 10-inch all-metal skillet and place in oven.
3. When margarine has melted and begins to bubble, place all remaining ingredients in

Blender and blend thoroughly at high speed, about a minute.

• Open the oven just enough to pout the batter quickly into the skillet. Close and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the “Baby” has popped up over the edge of the pan and is a delicious golden brown. Serve at once with a topping of your choice. [like either lemon juice or syrup]

Makes 1 10-inch pancake