With nine children, my mother never had time to make us breakfast in the morning. Most days it was cereal, toaster waffles or toaster strudel (OMG !) and in the winter she would heat up water for oatmeal. Special breakfasts like pancakes, crepes, Belgian waffles and my beloved dutch babies were only made for dinner from time to time.
Dutch babies were and probably are still one of my favorite foods in the world. Covered in syrup, they are not the healthiest meal. When my sister and I inherited the recipe from my mother, we learned that they are actually supposed to be sliced and eaten as a dessert and not served whole to a single person. Oops!
I tried to pass on my love of dutch babies to Kay, but like popovers, he thought they tasted to eggy and he didn’t really care for them. Shame!
Since I know he doesn’t like them, I always made dutch babies whenever Kay was gone for breakfast. He traveled a lot for work, so I definitely got my fill of dutch babies over the years. But it’s never enough!
Sometimes it’s these “secret single behavior” things that makes me the saddest about missing out on gluten. I attempted my first dutch baby a month or two into the gluten-free diet and it did not turn out well. It was still edible, but that’s not saying much.
I tried a few more times and my results were even worse. They were thick, didn’t puff up and cooked strangely. I thought about giving up on dutch babies, because making these gluten-free versions while Kay was away was actually depressing me more than cheering me up, but I decided to look at some recipes for gluten-free versions online.
I followed one recipe (can’t remember which one) and the results turned out pretty well. One of the tricks mentioned was to make sure the eggs were room temperature by warming them in a bowl of water. I had always used eggs straight out of the fridge with no problems, but I guess something changed when I switched to gluten-free flour.
I decided to make my mother’s recipe with the egg trick and what do you know, the dutch babies are turning out more and more normal each time! I think I am getting the hang of this. 🙂
Gluten Free Dutch Babies
3 eggs, warmed to room temperature in a bowl of hot water
1/2 cup GF flour like the Aha mix from Migros
1/2 cup milk, preferably dairy-free these days
pinch of salt
2 TBS Butter (28.4g), eyeballed. No exact measuring butter here folks!
- Warm your eggs for a bit in a bowl of hot water to bring them up to room temperature. Not enough to cook them, but enough so that your yolks are nice and runny when you crack the eggs.
- Start preheating your oven to 400ºF/205ºC.
- Beat eggs and then add flour, milk and a pinch of salt. Beat all until combined, but don’t over beat the batter.
- When the oven is almost hot, cut the butter and put it in your pie pan in the oven to melt it while it reaches the correct temperature. (Don’t stick it in too early and let your butter burn!)
- Take the pan with melted butter out and pour in your dutch baby mix.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed up.
- Drench in maple syrup and enjoy!
They are also wonderful with strawberries or other fresh fruit, jams like raspberry and whipped cream if you are being extra indulgent. Don’t judge me for all the syrup on this one!!
Mmmmmm. Are you a fan of puffed oven pancakes?
I recently rediscovered how much I love Apple Dutch Baby pancakes (as in, I’ve cooked 2 this week). It was the first recipe I ever learned in my life skills class as a freshman in high school, and I think it was one of the most useful things we learned how to make in that class.
Mmmmmm! I love Dutch Babies and always had them as a meal (breakfast for dinner) and not dessert. I was first introduced to them served with a squeeze of lemon and a dusting of powdered sugar, but prefer them slathered with strawberry jam. Todd had never had one until I made them.
I don’t remember warming my eggs when I made them last (gluten-free as well) but I know I made the batter before prepping the pans, so perhaps the sitting time accomplished the same thing. Granted, I always thought it was the cool batter hitting the sizzling pan that contributed to the rise, but who knows?