A Dutch baby is one of those dishes that, after you’ve made it for the first time, you’ll want to prepare again and again. Simply whisk or blend together flour, milk and eggs, then pour it all into a hot, butter-filled cast-iron skillet and bake for 15 minutes. For such a simple dish, the payoff — a dramatic, puffed pancake with deeply golden brown edges and a tender, buttery center — is huge. You can top it with fruit and sugar for breakfast or, do as I’ve been doing, and fill it with savory ingredients for dinner.
While you can certainly choose to fill your Dutch baby with meat (diced ham or rotisserie chicken are both effortless options), I like a vegetarian filling of fried chickpeas and arugula. It’s easy to prepare while the Dutch baby bakes — just make sure to give the chickpeas enough undisturbed cooking time to brown and crisp before stirring in the arugula.
The only real trick to the dish (if you could even call it a trick) is to ready the dinner table and your dinner guests before the Dutch baby is finished baking. Its dramatic height will begin shrinking immediately after it is removed from the oven, so you’ll want to serve it, in all its soufflé-like glory, as quickly as possible.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
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