Stacey Lucas’  pancake’s shape makes it convenient for filling with maple syrup, fresh fruit, bananas, scrambled eggs, sautéed apples, nuts, chocolate chips or a Harkins House Inn specialty: homemade strawberry sauce with a dollop of whip cream. “When you put the pancake batter into the oven, it rises. And when you take them out, it shrinks down a bit and the pancake looks like a little bowl,” explains Lucas.

Dutch Baby Pancake | Makes 1 pancake
Recipe courtesy of Orchard House Bed and Breakfast

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
2 small apples (Pink Lady, Granny Smith and Gala apples are good choices)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 F. As the oven is heating, toss the butter in a 10-inch, cast-iron skillet and place it into the oven. Slice apples thinly as butter melts. Remove skillet and arrange apples along the bottom. Don’t leave gaps. They will shrink. Return skillet to oven.

Whisk dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients and whisk together again. Remove skillet, sprinkle cinnamon generously over apples and pour batter gently over the apples. (Start around the outer edge and then work into the middle, which seems to hold the slices in place better.) Return to the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the pancake is puffed and golden. Cut into larger wedges and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and maple syrup, if desired.