Dutch Baby Recipe

Your first question here almost assuredly has nothing to do with how to prep the tasty brunch (or any time) treat Dutch baby, but is something along the lines of this: "Okay ... why is this called a Dutch baby?"

Chef and Nathaniel Lee of Beginner Food will tell you that there's really no great an answer to that absolutely fair question. "My understanding is the dish is actually German in origin," he says, and "[the name] is thus very likely a corruption of 'Deutsch' to 'Dutch' much like how we have the Pennsylvania 'Dutch' who are German [in heritage]." So that covers the Dutch part, but on the other front, your guess is as good as ours, baby.

Here's the thing: frankly, this dish could be called Deutsch baby, Dutch baby, Swiss widget, or French crankshaft and you wouldn't care a bit once you'd had a bite. It's a bready, buttery skillet full of deliciousness that when topped with fresh fruit and powdered sugar becomes a treat you and your (lucky) guests will long remember. And no need for said guests to know this unique, decidedly social media-shareable dish is actually pretty easy to make.

So let's make it!

To bake up a skillet of Dutch Baby, you'll need 3/4 of a cup of flour, 3/4 of a cup of milk (at room temperature), three eggs (also at room temperature), 3 tablespoons butter, and fruit and powdered sugar to top/fill the finished product.

Now, you noted those parenthetical room temperature directives, right? Because that's what they are, directives. One of the "biggest mistakes [with this recipe] is to use cold eggs or milk," says Lee. "Everything must be room temperature or warmer. You need to maximize how much heat and how long the heat will last in the skillet to poof up the dish. To be sure your eggs and milk are room temperature, you can run your eggs under hot water and put the milk in the microwave for 30 seconds."

First things first (well, aside from getting the milk and eggs to room temp), place a cast iron skillet in the oven and start preheating it to 400º F. (Note that while using cold eggs and milk was what Lee called one of the biggest mistakes you can make on this one, he says the "biggest mistake here is not preheating the oven and skillet.")

Now pour the measured flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl, then crack the eggs into flour. Stir things a few times, then while continuously stirring, add milk in slowly. Mix the four, warmed eggs, and warm and mix it all together till you reach a smooth consistency and everything is well blended together.

Once the oven is to full temperature and the iron pan is good and hot, carefully remove it and add butter to the skillet, rotating it around so the butter coats the interior. Now pour the batter into pan evenly, and then bake the dish for 25 minutes.

When the Dutch baby is done, pull it out of the oven and let it rest in the pan for a couple minutes, then top it with the fruit of your choice and powdered sugar. Serve the delicious dish right in the cast iron skillet and enjoy!