Tuesday Dinners

Step by Step Directions

I know a traditional Fat Elvis has bacon in it, I felt that was better on the side than in the actual cooking. But, you’re more than welcome to add as much as you want.

Likewise, you’re probably thinking that the Dutch Baby is named after the Netherlands, but it’s actually named after the Pennsylvania Dutch. Plus, this is just a recipe, so take your complaints elsewhere.

Start by adding all your ingredients to a bowl (this is the eggs, flour, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla extract).

I’m cooking in a 9×13 so I tripled the recipe from above (9 x 13 = 117, divide by 40 = ~3).

Combine all the ingredients together, to do this I’ve found that a whisk is easiest, but if you’re like me and only own one whisk and didn’t want to do the dishes in the middle of cooking than a fork or spoon also works.

A quick note on whisking: Did you know you’re supposed to just move side to side and not in a circular motion? I found that out this week and it probably halved the time it takes me to whisk things.

If possible let the batter rest for a moment, this allows our dry ingredients to absorb some of the moisture and makes everything more even.

It’s at this point in the cooking process that I preheated the oven. Set it to 425 degrees and throw whatever you’re cooking in into the oven with your butter.

Then I chopped the bananas. I’m not going to tell you how to do this.

I also at this time started the butter for the caramelized bananas melting in a pan. Once it was melted I added the brown sugar (and wasn’t paying attention so I accidentally doubled the amount that should have been there). Once the sugar and butter is combined add a splash of water to loosen the resulting mixture into a more syrupy consistency.

While that is cooking I took the baking dish out of the oven and used a strip of paper towel to make sure the melted butter covered the entire bottom and the sides of my dish.

Pour your batter over the top of the melted butter.

Add your peanut butter to a dish and throw it in the microwave for a couple of seconds (at least 15, up to 30). Then using a spoon, fork, chopstick, your finger, whatever you want, drizzle it over the top of the batter.

You can make it as fancy as you want, or you can accidentally drop your utensil in the batter and then try to cover it up, your choice.

Throw the baking dish in the oven for 20 minutes, you can rotate it halfway through if you’d like, but it should puff up and the edges should get crispy.

While the Dutch Baby is cooking you should place your bananas in your syrup mixture and let them cook for a couple of minutes on each side. Or you can mash them up into a mixture like baby food, it just depends on how you typically eat them.

Once the bananas are cooked I typically take them off the heat and let them sit for a couple of minutes so the syrup thickens up just a little.

Once the Dutch Baby is cooked take it out of the oven.

You can then either top it with your bananas directly or let your guests (if you’re cooking for other people) cut their own slices and put as much as they want on top.

Enjoy.

Variations

• You can use a cast iron skillet instead of a baking dish and the recipe still works so long as your ratios are correct.
• You can use most things that you would use for pancakes as fillings, just keep them on the bottom of the pan to ensure the height of the baby.
• If you’re not a fan of fillings than you can top the Babies as well, powdered sugar, syrup, fruits, etc.

Unsolicited Feedback

• EP: I like it better as a sandwich
• ML: Why not just make pancakes?
• BH: What are we? Monkeys?