Friday, May 06, 2011

Dutch Baby adventuers

My friend, who is a much better cook than I am, taught me how to cook a dutch baby. Some of you may now be asking, "what in the world is a dutch baby?". It is a fluffy type of pancake, a play on a popover, because it is baked all together. I use this recipe for my dutch baby and have tried it three times.

When I first made one the children were very concerned that we were going to eat a baby. Kids are funny that way, especially mine. They try to whip me into a frenzy every chance they get. Chick #5 was the most confused by the title of Dutch Baby. The first attempt at cooking a dutch baby involved sauteing apples. After the apples were tender, the batter was poured on them and it was baked. It also involved melting butter on top of it and drizzling some lemon juice upon it during the final minutes of baking.

Dutch Baby number three was full of bacon and sausage. It was a huge hit and completely disappeared. My sister and her son were here so the dutch baby knowledge was passed on to her.
The bacon/sausage version has been the most popular one I have made so far.

This morning I tried a coconut dutch baby. I added flaked coconut to the batter before I baked it and I loved it. The kids were half and half in love with it. It was not a hit so I am not sure that it would be worth it to try this version again. Coconut does have a funny texture and a few of my kids do not like the way that it feels in their mouths. I would like to know how it tastes when made with coconut milk. If I ever try that one I will let you know.



Here is the coconut Dutch after I served it. I tried to make homemade whipping cream but you can tell I failed. I added the powdered sugar right away and I bet that did something to the chemistry of the fat and fluffing and the whipping. I will have to search out a episode of Good Eats to figure out why my cream flopped. There is a good thing about cream and sugar, it always tastes good even if it is not fluffy.



Here is the coconut dutch baby hot out of the oven. Yummy!