Peach Dutch Baby Pancake

All summer long, I have access to delicious fresh peaches of all varieties grown just a few miles from Greensboro.  It also means that sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I have to find ways to use them.  Peach pancakes sounded like the perfect thing to try for dinner. While you could just make pancakes and add peaches to them, if you want something really special, try this recipe for Peach Dutch Baby Pancakes where the peaches are first caramelized. Baking them into a Dutch Baby Pancake is a great way to incorporate peaches when they are at their prime.  Cooking the peaches in butter and brown sugar brings out the flavor.

In the grocery and at the farmer’s market I always end up with peaches that are not quite ripe. Peaches are one of those fruits that will continue to ripen off the tree if you just let them sit on the counter for a few days. But if you’re like me, I’m inpatient and want to bite into them right away.  What I’ve found to work the best is to put the peaches in a brown bag with a ripe banana.  Even if I’m not in a hurry, I’ll put my ripe bananas next to the peaches to help them ripen over a couple of days. Once your peaches are ripe, if you can’t use them right away, store them in the refrigerator.  The cold air will stop the ripening process.

A Dutch Baby pancake is a German pancake that is baked in an iron skillet.  You’ll mostly see them made with apples, like my Baked Apple Pancake.  You add pancake mixture to a very hot skillet and bake the pancake which is like a sweetened Yorkshire Pudding. My version is a bit more custardy then Yorkshire Pudding. What is so appealing about a Dutch Baby or baked pancake is that you can serve everyone at the same time. No more standing over the stove waiting to flip pancakes. I’m hopelessly bad at making traditional pancakes but a baked pancake turns out perfect every time.

Start by caramelizing the peaches, to do this you will brown butter in an iron skillet in the oven.  To that delicious brown butter, add some brown sugar. Spread cut up peaches on top and sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon and let this cook together until the peaches are nice and soft.  While your peaches are caramelizing, you make a pancake type batter with lots of eggs and let it sit for 5 minutes before pouring it over your hot peaches.  Then just bake.  The pancake will puff up and then fall once it cools, but it looks pretty impressive when you take it out of the oven.

This pancake is sweet from the peaches themselves and just a little added sugar so it doesn’t need anything added to it. You can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top to make it look pretty but we didn’t think it needed anything else. This needs to be eaten as soon as it’s removed from the oven, it will get cold quickly. It’s not bad at room temperature, but best hot, right out of the oven.  Give everyone notice so they can get their coffee or tea ready.

This is perfect for a brunch or weekend breakfast, but since it’s so quick and easy, try making it for dinner.  It takes about 20 minutes to put together and then 20 minutes to bake.  If you’re all out of peaches, try a Baked Apple Pancake  instead, equally delicious.