Dutch Baby Pancake with a Cranberry Maple Compote

Let's maybe not focus on that one.

Hi everyone, I'm Molly Baz from the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

and today I'm here with The Incredible Egg,

to make a Dutch baby pancake with cranberry-maple compote.

So this is a perfect entertaining dish for the holidays

because it serves a crowd, and thanks to the eggs

that are in this crepe-like batter,

when you pull this pancake out of the oven,

it puffs and souffles, and it's a gorgeous,

kind of awe-inspiring dish.

First I'm gonna make the cranberry-maple compote

that is going to top the Dutch baby.

Eight ounces of cranberries, that I'm going to

throw into this medium saucepan.

A half a cup of maple syrup, which seems like a lot,

but cranberries are extremely tart.

One quarter teaspoon of cardamom,

which is a nice, warm, winter spice,

just sort of like a holiday back note.

3/4 of a teaspoon of Kosher salt,

because even sweet things need salt.

Three large strips of orange zest right into this pot.

And then finally about a third a cup of water,

which is just gonna help loosen this

so that it's less of a thick jelly,

and more of a spoonable sauce.

Bringing this up over medium heat,

and pretty quickly you'll see that the cranberries

are gonna start to burst, and give out

some of their juiciness, and turn this into

a nice, saucy compote.

Let's talk about this batter.

It is jam packed with eggs, and the whole eggs

act to lift the entire thing in the oven

and create this really dramatic puff.

And so I'm going to whisk all four together in a bowl.

It's the egg whites that create that lift.

And then the egg yolks here are going to add richness

to this batter, we have usually one to two dozen eggs

in our fridge at all times.

It's definitely not a good scene

when we run out of eggs at our house.

Meanwhile, my cranberries have come to a simmer,

and they're starting to get juicy and saucy.

But they're not quite there yet, so I'm gonna let them

simmer a few minutes longer.

To these four eggs,

I'm now adding 3/4 of a cup of whole milk.

Three tablespoons of sugar, this is one teaspoon

of vanilla extract, 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt.

I'm gonna grate a little bit more orange zest

from that orange we used for the compote right into it.

And then lastly, once everything is combined,

I'll whisk in 3/4 of a cup of all-purpose flour.

If we add the flour in the beginning,

gluten will form in this batter,

and it will not puff and rise like we want it to.

I'm gonna go grab my cast iron skillet out of the oven.

It is crucial to preheat your cast iron skillet

when making a Dutch baby, because the egg whites,

when they hit the skillet at a very high heat

create that beautiful lift.

Adding two tablespoons of butter to this preheated skillet.

You can hear it's already sizzling.

[butter sizzling]

And I'm just gonna swirl it around,

and then I'm immediately gonna pour in

this Dutch baby batter, and go straight back into the oven.

That's gonna cook for about 10 to 12 minutes.

I'm gonna keep the light on actually, in the oven.

And I'll take a look at it and make sure

that it's puffy and risen, and kind of golden brown

around the edges.

Okay, as you can see, it has puffed.

It looks insane.

I'm gonna come over here.

All right, so it's immediately going to fall

and that's normal, so I'm now going to scatter

some of this compote over.

A little bit more butter, because it's a pancake.

And then I'm gonna drizzle it with more maple syrup.

I'm just carefully cutting it, because I don't wanna

scrape the cast iron, also be always mindful

that this handle is very hot.

And then right onto a plate.

What I love about it is how the center

of the Dutch baby stays really tender and custardy,

but you get that delicious crispy edges all around.

So you get a little bit of both in every bite.

As you can see, a very quick batter.

It's super simple to prepare, and the eggs are amazing

in the way that they create this super fluffy,

custardy, beautifully dramatic pancake.

It tastes delicious, it has all the flavors of the holidays,

and it's perfect for sharing.

So that's my Dutch baby with cranberry-maple compote.

[upbeat music]