Karl’s Buckwheat Dutch Baby with Blueberries

Wife Jan has started on the Noom program, and she thought that my original recipe for Dutch Babies was too much of a “red food”—foods like white flour and sugar that are to be severely limited in this diet. While there is nothing really restricted on this diet, some foods are better than others—you are meant to fill up on “green foods” with some limited “yellow foods” to keep you happy and satisfied. To please her, I replaced some of the white flour with buckwheat and the sugar with agave nectar, both much lower on the glycemic index.

After Breakfast Note: Jan much preferred the buckwheat version of Dutch baby. She thought it was much more flavorful that the original—which she though rather bland, only having the flavor of whatever toppings were added.

Karl’s Buckwheat Dutch Baby with Blueberries

Ingredients

⅓ cup buckwheat flour
⅓ cup AP flour
1 tsp. lemon zest
¼ tsp. Kosher salt
⅛ tsp. nutmeg

3 eggs
¾ cup milk (I use 2% lactose free)
1½ Tbs. raw agave nectar
½ tsp. vanilla

3 Tbs. butter

¾ cup fresh blueberries per person

Directions

1. Measure the flours, zest, salt and nutmeg into a medium bowl and shift or whisk to combine.

Tip: I am writing these directions for preparing your ingredients the night before.  If you are assembling your Dutch baby just before you plan to cook, you may use a small bowl for mixing the wet ingredients and add them directly to the dry ingredients. Also—if you are making enough for more than three people—you may need to use quart jars.

Note: Do not preheat your oven! I have read several recipes that have you heat both the pan and the oven—and while they cook a lot faster—but they do not get the crispy raised edge of a proper Dutch baby. Even if you are assembling and baking your Dutch baby just before serving, you still want to put it into a cold oven to start.

2. Add the three eggs to a lidded pint jar.

Tip: Seal the jar and shake well to scramble the eggs.

Note: Scrambling the eggs before adding the rest of the wet ingredients ensures that you do not get large lumps of egg white in the middle of your Dutch baby.

3. Add the milk, agave, and vanilla to the jar, put on the lid, and shake well to mix.

Tip: Put the sealed jar in the refrigerator until morning.

Note: The flour mixture may simply be left on the counter overnight.

4. In the morning, melt three tablespoons of butter in a large sauté or cast iron pan.

Tip: Do not over-heat your pan, you want to heat the pan just enough to melt the butter.

5. Brush the melted butter all over the sides—and especially the lip—of the pan.

Note: The batter around the edge of the Dutch baby cooks slightly faster than the batter in the middle. As it cooks, the egg batter along the edge will expand and—if the edges of the pan are well greased—it will rise up. Below this ring, more batter will fill in the space and start to cook faster than the center. This ring will expand, pushing the first ring higher. This pattern will continue to happen and—if works properly—you may have as much as a 4-5 inch high crisp ring all around your Dutch baby. One important lesson I have learned is that you want to use a fairly shallow pan—the uncooked batter should be within ½ to 1 inch of the lip of the pan. A high sided pan over-cooks the edge and stops it from expanding up the sides of the pan.

6. Pour ½ of the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Tip: You want absolutely no lumps in your egg batter.

Note: You actually want to develop some gluten while whisking your batter. A bit of gluten is necessary to support the formation of the Dutch baby’s raised edge.

7. Add the remaining liquid to the batter and whisk it in.

Tip: Again, you want a perfectly smooth well blended batter.

8. Pour the batter into the pan and place it into the cold oven.

Tip: Any excess melted butter will flow over the outer edges of the batter.

9. Turn on the oven and set the thermostat to 350° F.

10. Bake the Dutch baby—undisturbed—for 30 minutes.

11. After 30 minutes, check the Dutch baby for doneness.

Tip: The center should be fairly firm with no more than a little jiggle when shaken.

Note: If the center of the Dutch baby is still very loose, continue baking for another 5-8 minutes.

12. Remove the Dutch baby from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.

13. Transfer the Dutch baby to a large serving plate or cut it into individual pieces.

14. Rinse, dry and place the blueberries in the center of the uncut Dutch baby or over the individual pieces and serve.