Sunday, January 1, 2012

Welcome 2012 - New Year Day Brunch


During the week, I rarely make a "real" breakfast.  Generally we get by with toast, hot cereal or hard boiled eggs - just enough to get us going in the morning.  Weekends are a different story.  Sir Knight is home, we are all together and we love starting our day around the table with good food, hot tea and great conversation.

Most often, Saturday breakfasts consist of a real "farmers" breakfast.  Eggs, bacon/sausage, hash browns and toast are the norm (served with Tabasco sauce, of course), although breakfast burritos or sausage gravy and biscuits are equally welcome.  Sunday, being our day of rest, I usually like to make something that requires a little less effort.  Crepes, Amish Baked Oatmeal and German Pancakes are all simple, delicious and perfectly fill the bill for a laid-back Sunday brunch.

I have made German Pancakes for years, but I have to admit, they really are better when baked in a wood cookstove.  Somehow, the butter baking on top of the pancake becomes crunchy and, well, incredible.  German Pancakes are full of eggs, so their consistency differs greatly from a "griddle cake".  They are spongy, almost custard like, with a rich flavor that is enhanced by their copious amounts of butter.  This is the perfect recipe to use up all of that extra butter (from your cow) and those eggs (from your chickens).

German Pancake
(8 inch skillet)                                                     (16 inch skillet)
1/4 C butter                                                          3/4 C butter
1 C milk                                                                3 C milk
4 eggs                                                                  12 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract                                           1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C flour                                                               3 C flour
2 T sugar                                                              6 T sugar

Place butter in your cast iron skillet, place skillet in a 425° oven (or 350° (a hot oven) if using your wood cookstove) for 2 minutes or until butter melts and pan is very hot.  Combine milk, eggs and vanilla in bowl.  Beat until combines.  Stir in flour and sugar.  Beat with egg beater (or mixer) until smooth.  Pour the batter into your hot pan.  Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until puffed and brown on top.  Serve with berries or butter and syrup. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Melting the butter in the skillet
The milk and eggs
An old-fashioned egg beater works wonders!
Adding the flour and sugar
Beating the flour and sugar into the milk, eggs & vanilla
Pouring the batter into the hot, butter enveloped skillet
Can you see the butter slick  on top?
Make sure your fire is nice and hot!
As it cooks, the pancake begins to climb the side of the pan
(it climbs higher where it is closer to the firebox)
It gets higher
(remember to rotate, if you are baking in a wood cookstove)
And higher....
Until, Viola! A pancake, light and fluffy!
Butter pools at one end, and all of the brown area are mmmm, caramelized butter!
The pancake does deflate as it cools - that is perfectly normal
That's all there is to it!  This is a family favorite, and the perfect way to herald the new year.  Sir Knight says that if the Mayans had had these pancakes, they wouldn't have stopped their calendar at 2012!

As we usher in this new year, let us be ever diligent, ever faithful - wise stewards of what God has blessed us with.  Happy New Year.

16 comments:

  1. What a GREAT way to start a NEW YEAR!!!
    Louis

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  2. We like to sprinkle ours with powder sugar and lemon juice. The only problem is we have to eat in shifts, because I need to make several batches to satisfy our families hunger for the oven pancake. LOL :) TK

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  3. That looks wonderful! We will have to try this some Saturday morning. We generally get by with the same through the week. Not a lot of time as we are running out the door. Happy New Year to you! and what a beautifully set table!

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  4. Happy New Year! (what a wonderful way to start the New Year too)
    ~Clare

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  5. Oh yum! That looks so good! I am a horrible cook, but I'd try making that just because it looks delightfully delicious. I'm sure mine would be about 1/4" thick and taste like cardboard, but Enola's recipes are always inspirational.

    New Year's Resolution: ignore dieting and just dig in...it's later than I think.

    NoCal Gal

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  6. We love these best with pear sauce over the top, which gives me a good excuse to forget about all the peeling and coring and just run the pears through my juicemate! Beautiful pictures...someday I hope to have a wood cookstove!

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  7. Wow ~ this looks great. Could you just clarify what temperature I would use for a regular, electric oven? Thanks so much.

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  8. I have been looking for a dish for the morning masses and.......... I got It! Thank You Ma-am and HNY.........

    - Tom T. Tinker

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  9. Anonymous;
    Bake in a 425° oven (electric or gas)!

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  10. Those deep orange yolks from farm fresh eggs are the trademark of free range poultry. Just beautiful!
    We call them our Happy Chicken Fruit!

    thank you for sharing this recipe!

    notutopia

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  11. Tried this today and it was magnificent. Thank you!

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  12. Yummy very yummy. Just cooked one of these in my oven it was wonderful. Thank you for sharing, I'll be adding this to my cookbook.

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  13. SAVING THIS FOR A DAY OF A DIFERENT LIFE STYLE, IF EVER....EXERCISE AND HEART, KIDNEY AND VASCULAR REPAIRINGS ELIMINATES MOST DAIRY, SUGAR, SALT FLOURS, FATS....

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  14. Made this with freshly ground whole wheat flour, which we soaked overnight in the milk and a little kefir, then added the rest of the ingredients in the morning. It was delicious, thank you for sharing!

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  15. thankful for the post about soaking whole wheat flour over nite - is this the secret ? ive been grinding my own flour for health necessitates it but i have yet to understand how to get light crispy flakey biscuits - or anything else :) i wondered about soaking - how long ? i started using half barley flour and 1/3 to half wheat flour - some times it helps sometimes it doesnt - what are the variables im need to consider - my husband and i would give our - well ok :) we really want to know how to make light fluffy biscuits with flour we grind ourselves - thanks ! Michelle

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