Whole Wheat Dutch Babies

Need an easy, delicious breakfast idea for this weekend? While I love regular pancakes, we also grew up loving dutch babies around our house, which are essentially a puffed-up oven-baked pancake. Dutch babies are great because they only call for a few ingredients, they are hard to screw up, and the result is quite impressive with very minimal effort. I thought I would switch up the standard recipe by trying whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular all-purpose white flour in order to make my version of dutch babies a little more nutritious and they turned out great. Whole wheat pastry flour can be found at any grocery store in the baking aisle or bulk food section and is a great pantry staple to substitute for all-purpose white flour in almost any baked good recipe. Don't use regular whole wheat flour here - it's too heavy and the dutch babies won't rise correctly. Serve the dutch babies topped with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dusting of powdered sugar, then eat it like that or add maple syrup, jam, or fresh fruit.

Whole Wheat Dutch Babies
Serves 4

Active Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

6 eggs
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. lowfat milk
1/2 t. vanilla extract
4 T. (1/2 stick) butter
Lemon, powdered sugar and maple syrup, jam, or fruit for serving

Place a 10'' cast-iron skillet (or similar oven-proof skillet) in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
Whisk the eggs together in a medium-sized bowl until frothy. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, then whisk the flour into the bowl with the eggs. Whisk in the milk and vanilla, combining well to make sure there are no clumps (the batter will be thin). When the oven is preheated, remove the skillet and add in the butter, stirring with a wooden spoon until melted (which only takes about 10 seconds). Then, immediately add the batter to the pan (right on top of the butter) and return to the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden and puffy. Don't peek until it's done or the dutch babies will lose their height. When ready, remove from the oven, cut into four big pieces, and serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, some powdered sugar, and syrup, jam, or fruit, if you'd like.