I love breakfast – for dinner. In the mornings, I simply can’t eat that much unless I have a day of hiking ahead of me. But my husband Andrew has been treating me to this Strawberry Dutch Baby for the last several weeks and it is soooooooooo yummy. Sometimes it is accompanied by breakfast meat and other times we just eat it on its own. And the great thing about it is that I don’t crave dessert afterwards. So have this Strawberry Dutch Baby for breakfast, brunch or dinner.

I thought that Andrew couldn’t improve on his Caramelized Apple Dutch Baby, but I was wrong. Well, actually I wasn’t. While that was perfection, so is this. And while it’s true that we can now eat strawberries all year long, take advantage of the summer fruit while you can. It will never have more flavor than it does now. And as the strawberries roast in the skillet while the Dutch Baby cooks, the flavor intensifies.

So what is a Dutch Baby? Well, for those of you who don’t know, it’s a cross between a very large popover and a Yorkshire pudding. It’s also called a German pancake. It can be plain or with fruit. And I suppose there is no reason why you couldn’t make a savory Dutch Baby, although I have not had it this way. The name has absolutely nothing to do with the Netherlands and likely is a mangling of the word Deutsch, meaning “German.” However you say it, just enjoy this marvelous creation.

My husband, as guest blogger, will now continue the post.

Hi! It’s me again, Andrew, and today I’m writing about a Strawberry Dutch Baby. It was inspired by a recipe from thekitchn.com (for details about how it was changed, see the Q&A below). Here’s the far superior and delectable result! [Okay, this is actually Lisa giving her critique. Andrew is much more modest.]

Recipe

Yield: 2 for dinner

Ingredients

  For the strawberry filling

    1/3 cup granulated sugar

    Zest of 1 medium lemon

Juice of 1/2 of medium lemon

    1 lb. strawberries, plus a few more for garnish

    3 tbsp unsalted butter

  For the batter

    1 cup all-purpose flour

    1 tsp baking powder

    1/8 tsp baking soda

    1 tbsp granulated sugar

    ½ tsp kosher salt

    ½ tsp ground cardamom

    4 large eggs

    1 cup buttermilk

    1 tsp vanilla extract

  For serving (optional, but recommended):

  Powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F

Put a 9” cast iron skillet on the stove on medium heat

Strawberry filling

Place 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Finely grate the zest of 1 medium lemon onto the sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until fully combined and gritty. If no one is watching, then by all means, lick your fingers.

Hull and cut 1 lb. of strawberries in half and place them in a large bowl. Cut an additional 3 to 4 strawberries into quarters and set aside. Squeeze the juice of half of the zested lemon onto the strawberries and toss to combine.

Batter

1. Place 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, ½ tsp kosher salt, and ½ tsp ground cardamom in a bowl and whisk to combine.

2. In a different bowl, add 4 large eggs and whisk until frothy. Add 1 cup buttermilk and 1 tsp vanilla extract and whisk to combine. 

3. Gently add the dry ingredients, and then add the quartered strawberries, whisking the batter just enough to get everything moist. Do not over mix.

4. Cut 3 tbsp of unsalted butter into 3 pieces, then put them into the skillet. Once the butter is melted, add most of the lemon sugar mixture to the skillet and stir to combine, then arrange the 1 pound of cut strawberries on top and sprinkle with the remaining lemon sugar mixture. 

5. Working quickly, pour the batter all over the berries. Put the skillet in the oven, baking at 400°F until puffed and golden-brown, about 20 minutes.

6. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes. Garnish with a few sliced strawberries, if desired. Serve dusted with powdered sugar.

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Q. and A.

Q. If I start heating up the skillet at the beginning, by the time I finish making the filling and batter I think it will be way too hot and the butter will heat up too fast!

A. You may be right. Here’s the deal: just after we finish the batter we want to pour it onto the strawberries in the skillet. We don’t want the mixed batter to hang around too long waiting for the strawberries, but we also don’t want to overheat the butter or overcook the strawberries (they’ll become too mushy).

So how about this: while you’re preparing the batter, just before you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, go back to the skillet and melt the butter, heat up the lemon sugar mixture, and add the strawberries, then finish the batter.

It really all depends on how quickly you do the different steps, how quickly your skillet heats up, etc. Play around with the steps and do what works best for you. 

Q. Hypothetically, what if I poured the batter over the strawberries, and only then realized I’d forgotten to stir in the reserved strawberries. What should I do?

A. Funny you should ask. When that happened to me I just sprinkled the strawberries on top of the poured batter and put the skillet into the oven. It turned out fine.

Q. Can I serve this with whipped cream, instead of powdered sugar?

A. Of course! 

Q. What about vanilla ice cream?

A. See previous answer.

Q. What did you mean about this recipe being “inspired by” another recipe?

A. Well, the first time I followed the recipe exactly as it was on thekitchn.com the batter didn’t puff up, the strawberries were mush, and no one liked the result. So Lisa said, why don’t you make it more like our Apple Pancake recipe? So I reduced the amount of butter, added more flour, replaced the milk with buttermilk, removed one egg, and cooked the strawberries in the skillet less. It turned out better, but there was room for improvement. Third time around I added ¾ tsp baking powder and a few quartered strawberries to the batter, and I just barely cooked the strawberries before putting the skillet in the oven. The result was pretty good! Finally I upped the baking powder to a full teaspoon, threw in a bit of baking soda, and arranged to get the strawberries into the oven as quickly as possible. The batter ended up light, puffy, and delicious. That’s what’s printed here.

Q. Do you have to be some sort of cookbook author expert to make those sort of changes to a published recipe?

A. Nah. You just have to be willing to listen to good advice (from Lisa) and also willing to try making it more than once.