The dutch baby pancake is the dish of the moment. Dutch baby recipes pop up all the time on my feed. I remember seeing one at a local restaurant in Portland that had lemon curd on the inside. It looked absolutely incredible. I developed this maple brown butter dutch baby recipe for fun after becoming obsessed with making dutch babies during the pandemic. It all started because of my love affair with maple syrup, brown butter, and cooking everything in my cast iron pan.
If you’ve never had real maple syrup, it’s a game changer. The plastic bottle variety is a poor recreation of a magical ingredient. I grew up with maple syrup, being from Maine. But I didn’t eat it very often. I actually didn’t have much of a sweet tooth as a kid. We went to Maine Maple Sunday and watched them tap trees. But I never really had any desire to taste it.
Brown Butter Dutch Baby with Maple
In my adulthood, I decided to take local ingredients more seriously. So, I investigated the best maple syrups and tried a few kinds. My favorite was from Passamaquoddy Maple, which I buy by the gallon. It has a richer flavor and a darker color. It’s almost like burnt caramel mixed with maple syrup. I put it on everything! So, when I came up with a maple brown butter dutch baby recipe, I knew it would pair perfectly with the eggy base.
The recipe uses brown butter to up that caramelized flavor. And I pour in maple syrup into the brown butter to infuse the flavor before adding the batter. The sugar in the syrup also adds a layer of caramelization to the outside of the pancake when cooking in the cast iron skillet. The result is a deep, flavorful, crepe-like pancake with a delicate egg flavor and a crunchy edge. It’s so good! I sprinkle over powdered sugar before serving and it kind of melts into the top and becomes crunchy, which is incredible. I would recommend using maple sugar, if you can, for added flavor, which you can pop in a blender and whiz for a few minutes until powdery.
Pancakes and Caramel Sugar
Another option is a simple recipe that I love, which adds so much depth to many dishes. Caramel sugar. Simply make caramel (not sauce, meaning no cream or butter) and pour onto a silicon mat to harden. When cooled completely, break the caramel into shards and blend in a food processor or high speed blender until powdery. I like to use it in place of powdered sugar in frosting recipes, dutch baby recipes, and on top of strawberries in the summer. You could put it on top of ice cream, on creme brûlée, really anything!
The dutch baby is really popular right now and it seems like everyone is making one. I think it’s because it’s so high reward for the effort. I was obsessed with popovers my whole childhood but they were difficult to make and took too much time to pour. So blending this entire recipe in a blender cup and just pouring into a pan of brown butter is so incredibly easy. Watching it puff up in the oven and taking it out after the timer goes off is so satisfying, and show stopping. People will think it’s hard to make but it will take maybe 10 minutes of effort, one pan, and one cup to clean. It’s really one of my favorite breakfast recipes.
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Maple Brown Butter Dutch Baby
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp real maple syrup + more for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° F.
- Blend all ingredients except butter and maple syrup until smooth.
- In a 10” cast iron skillet, melt butter until browned and swirl around pan, including sides.
- Just before adding batter, drizzle maple syrup into the brown butter.
- Pour batter into hot skillet and immediately transfer to oven.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown and risen. Serve with powdered sugar and maple syrup.
Notes
- Make sure your cast iron skillet is really well seasoned and used. It should be virtually non-stick, otherwise the brown butter and maple syrup mixture may stick or burn.
- To clean the pan after, heat the pan back up for 5 minutes on the stove and then clean with hot water. It’ll help release any residual residue.
- If your blender cup is too small to fit all the ingredients, take a chopstick and push the ingredients down, mixing to make room.
- Serve immediately when it comes out of the oven so it doesn’t deflate. Although I’ve eaten if for leftovers the next day and toasted it – the sugar caramelizes and gets crunchier, which I would highly recommend.
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