Recipe - German Pancakes

I don't know about you, but I'm done with complicated recipes and fancy meals for awhile.  Everyone's back to work and school, the guests are gone, and it's cold outside.  I just want plain food that's on the table in 30 minutes or less.

Most of you have probably made German Pancakes at one time or another, but if you haven't, nothing is simpler and quicker--including regular pancakes.  And nothing makes the men in my life happier, or get out of bed more enthusiastically on a Saturday morning, than me yelling up the stairs that German Pancakes will be out of the oven in ten minutes.

In the time it takes to heat your oven, they are ready to go in.  They consist of only five ingredients--flour, salt, eggs, milk, and butter--things you always have on hand.  They are fluffy and buttery (well, not terribly buttery at our house since I've cut the amount of butter from the original recipe by half), ready to drizzle on syrup and serve with a cold glass of milk.  And if you're lucky--some crispy bacon on the side.

Speaking of bacon, cooking it in the oven instead of frying it in a skillet is something I've been doing for awhile now and never looked back.  No more standing over the stove struggling to get each piece perfectly cooked while being spattered periodically with hot bacon fat!  I now simply line up the strips on a cookie sheet and cook them 15 minutes or so at 400 degrees.  They come out perfect--evenly cooked and leaving me free to do other things--like get the rest of the breakfast ready.  I don't know why I didn't do this years ago!  If you're like me and never thought of cooking bacon any way besides in a frying pan, give it a try.  See photos and instructions for German Pancakes and Oven Fried Bacon at the end of the post.

German Pancakes

Ingredients:

6 large or 8 medium Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 cup Flour

¾ teaspoon Salt

5 Tablespoons Butter (4 Tablespoons is enough if you want it a bit healthier.  The original recipe called for 8)

First, preheat oven to 415 degrees.

Crack eggs into bowl and beat up with electric mixer.  Beat in flour, salt, and milk until smooth.

Melt butter in microwave and pour in a 10" by 15" oblong glass baking pan. If you only have a 9" by 13", you may have to cut the ingredients to a 3/4 recipe, which isn't too hard (and it will only serve 3 at the most).  Or try it with this amount of batter, but it will raise very high above the top of the pan--which is probably OK if you have a big oven.  Really, though, you need a Pyrex this size and they are easily found.  You will use it all the time, I promise!  Swirl melted butter around to cover the whole bottom of the pan.

 Mix well with an electric mixer.

  Pour batter right over the butter. 

Carefully place in oven without moving it much so the batter doesn’t mix into the butter.  Bake at 415 degrees for 23 minutes.

This isn't a thing of beauty, is it?  Make sure the family is assembled before you pull it out, as it quickly collapses--kind of like a souffle.

Slice into awkward looking squares and serve immediately with syrup, jam, or a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Serves 3-4.

Oven Bacon

1.        Lay bacon strips out evenly on a cookie sheet.

 If they don't all fit, lay a couple the other direction or overlap slightly.

2.       Place in cold oven.

3.       Turn the oven to 400 degrees after the bacon is in.

4.       Set timer for 15 minutes.

See how a couple of pieces on the end are totally done and some of the others are not? Take the done ones out to avoid overcooking.

5.       After 15 minutes, check on it, but it probably will need at least another 5 minutes.  Depending on the thickness of your bacon, the cooking time will vary, but when you see it isn’t quite ready, watch it very closely, because even a minute or two can mean the difference between done and overdone at this stage.
6.  Once in awhile some of the pieces will get done before others.  So that you don’t overcook any of it, remove from oven, take out the pieces that are ready, and stick the rest back in to finish.  Watch it closely. 

 Now the remainder of the bacon is also done.  

7.       Drain on paper towels and serve.

NOTE:  Even when I don’t need a whole pound of bacon, I cook it all because it’s so easy to throw in a zipper bag and toss in the freezer, pulling out a couple of pieces at a time as needed.  Reheat in microwave, wrapped in a paper towel, for 30 seconds or so, and it will be almost as good as freshly cooked.  Don't overcook in the microwave, or you will ruin it.  It really only takes a few seconds.