Ricotta Peach Dutch Baby Pancakes

Once school gets back in session, Saturday morning becomes our morning for slowing down and enjoying the day. We put away the industrial strength jolt-you-awake coffee that we both desperately need throughout the week, and bring out the good coffee.

It's the equivalent of bringing out the good china on a Sunday night, if you ask me.

Just significantly less breakable.

Right now, weekend coffee consists of something from our Hawaiian stash, but once that goes, we tend towards beans from Balzac.

I've expressed my deep and abiding love for the hands-off features of the dutch baby pancake, and threw together this today in order to use up two overly ripe peaches from the farmer's market.

The most frustrating part of the pancake is flipping it out - I had a little bit that didn't feel like leaving the warm comfort of the pan, but thems the breaks, huh? Perfection is for people who have too much time on their hands and aren't hungry.

If you have some lemons handy, I suspect some lemon zest would not go amiss here.


Ricotta Peach Dutch Baby Pancakes

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
2 peaches, pitted and sliced
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup flour (I used spelt this time with great results, but usually use all purpose)
½ cup ricotta cheese
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Heat a large cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Once warm, add butter, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan as it melts. Throw in peach slices and cook for about 2 minutes, or until peaches release their juices. Add in brown sugar and stir until it dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. While pan is heating, whisk together remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour over peaches and put the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until pancake is puffed and golden.

3. Remove from oven, run a knife around the edge of the pancake and invert onto a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar if particularly ugly looking. (Ha! We've all been there!)

Caribbean Dutch Baby Pancakes

This morning, I reached for the apple I knew was in the fridge, only to discover that it was not there at all. But, you see, I needed that apple for the Dutch Baby Pancakes I was going to make for breakfast this morning.

I looked through the vegetable drawer, hoping that the apple had escaped and was hiding under the limp kale, but the only fruit I came across was a very happy mandarin orange.

It was far too delicious to put in the pancake. I have lunch plans for that orange.

I considered making the pancake without fruit, but that just felt pointless. The caramelized fruit is my favourite part of the whole Dutch Baby experience.

And then, sitting proudly on the top shelf of my fridge, the leftover pineapple spoke to me.

"Why not choose me and some coconut milk?" it said.

"Excellent." I responded and wondered why my fruit was speaking to me. Last time I'd checked, I wasn't living in a Jim Henson production.

Some allspice and cinnamon add a nice warmth to the whole recipe.

Caribbean Dutch Baby Pancakes (maybe that should be Dutch Caribbean...)

(based on this recipe)

Ingredients

1 knob butter (about a tbsp)
¼ fresh pineapple, peeled and cored
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp water
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp allspice

3 eggs
3/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup flour
¼ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º.

2. Slice the pineapple into ¼ - ½" thick rounds. Cut each round into quarters.

3. Heat a cast iron (or oven proof) skillet over medium heat, add butter. Once butter is melted, place the pineapple slices in the pan and let brown.

4. Once pineapple has browned on both sides, add brown sugar, water, cinnamon and allspice. Let the sugar mixture bubble away and reduce a little bit.

5. While the sugar mixture is reducing, whisk together remaining ingredients in a large bowl until smooth. Remove skillet from heat and pour batter over top of the fruit. Place skillet in oven and let cook until puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired!