It has been a few weeks since I shared a recipe for my Cooking Through My Collection Series, but today I am back to sharing my cookbook collection with an oven apple pancake. Also known as an apple dutch baby pancake.
I have fond memories of dutch baby type pancakes. My mom made them almost every year for Christmas and other holiday breakfasts. Today’s recipe is a little different than my mom’s recipe because it contains apples, but it is the same basic idea. The apples added to this are delicious and perfect for fall.
This recipe comes from the cookbook Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook. Before we talk about the cookbook though I must talk about my love for cast iron. My mom and sister bought me my first cast iron pan and I have used it so many times since then. I have also added quite a few pieces to my collection since then. Because you can never have too many cast iron pans can you?
Growing up my mom used her cast iron pans all the time. She has had them for years and they are well seasoned. In fact, they are so well seasoned they are almost like a non stick pan. My guess is that she has been using them for at least 40 years. I think some of them even came from my grandmother, so they are older than that.
Cast iron pans are pans that will last for years. If not generations. They are an investment worth making. Once they are seasoned you will find yourself using them over and over again.
Since I love cast iron pans so much, it is probably no surprise that I love the cookbooks that Lodge puts out. You don’t need a special cookbook for your cast iron pans, but since Lodge is pretty much the authority on cast iron cooking, I love seeing what they recommend for cooking in them. And this Lodge cookbook is full of great recipes for using your cast iron.
Now for the recipe. Oven pancakes aka Dutch Babies are hard to get a good picture of. If you have ever cooked them, you know they puff up beautiful when they are in the oven, but almost as soon as you take them out of the oven, they deflate and look like a flat pancake. Kind of like a souffle. They are beautiful for about 1 minute and that is it.
However they are delicious! And they are easy to make. This apple oven pancake is great for fall. It combines apples and cinnamon with a dutch baby and it gives you a wonderful breakfast treat. It may not be pretty, but it is delicious!
Oven Apple Pancake
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup flour ( or use a gluten free flour blend)
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Melt butter in cast iron skillet over low heat.
- Once the butter is melted remove half of the butter to use in batter.
- Add cinnamon, sugar, and sliced apples to the remaining butter in the pan.
- Cook over medium low heat for several minutes until the apples are slightly softened.
- While the apples are cooking whisk together the remaining butter, egg, milk, flour, and salt until smooth.
- Pour batter over the hot apples.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the pancake puffs up and is golden brown.
- Serve straight from the skillet or invert onto a serving plate.
Note: If using a gluten free flour blend you may need to use a little extra liquid depending on the brand of the blend.
Could you make this in a regular glass pan in the oven, as I don’t have any cast iron? Though they sound like something wonderful to use. Also could you use pears? As we have a large abundance of them from our trees this year. Thanks!
Yes, you can make this in a regular pyrex type dish. I have not done it with this recipe, but I have with other dutch baby type ones and it works fine. And I think pears would be great as well. In fact that sound really good. I would probably cook them a little less in the pan to start with because pears usually soften faster than apples, but besides that I think it would work great. I hope you enjoy it!
What size cast iron skillet do you use for this recipe?
10 inch, but I think one a little smaller or larger would work as well if you adjusted the cooking time.
These look delicious. Is there a rule of thumb for what kind of apples to buy for cooking?
For cooking and baking I prefer a tart apple like granny smith or Jonathan, but for this recipe most apple would work.