Next-Level German Pancake

Now, listen. I would never pretend to be a good cook. I can follow directions all right I think. But, I feel like I'm always either cleaning up after a meal or making another. I've truly just about had it with the question, "Mammmma. I want something to eat. What can I haaaaave?" So lately, I've been trying to beef up our breakfasts so that I know the kids start off the day with full bellies. That way I can turn around and say, "No. I know for a FACT that you're not starving!"

The newest breakfast we've added to our arsenal is the German apple pancake. A couple of weeks ago, C posted on Facebook something about loving his cast iron skillet, and someone suggested this recipe. Now, I normally am not on Facebook very super often, and I don't look at people's walls often either (even my husband's- no offense, love!) but I happened to look at this recipe and I about died just looking at it. I normally leave all the cast iron skillet-ing to C, but I have to admit, I may now ask for shared custody of this bad boy.

So, as promised, here's the recipe for ya (taken from Dandelion Mama.)

You will need...

- 1/2 stick butter, melted
- 2 large firm apples peeled, cored and sliced into wedges (I used Honeycrisp apples)
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tbsp sugar (I mayyyy or may not have upped that up a bit)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in the middle position.
2. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat, setting aside 2 tbsp in your blender.
3. Add apple wedges to butter in skillet and saute until they soften and get some color. About 5 minutes.
4. While apples are cooking, add milk, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt to butter in blender and whirl until smooth.
5. When apples are colored and soft, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon, then pour batter over the top of the whole mess.
6. Put the skillet in the hot oven and bake until pancake is puffy and golden, usually 12-15 minutes.
7. Dust with powered sugar and serve with real maple syrup.

And that's it! I was acting like a little kid waiting for Christmas as the timer counted down till the pancake was ready. It smelled divine and tasted even divine-er. I'm such a sucker for good breakfast foods. I'm less bacon and sausage and more of a pancake-y girl myself, though. The real maple syrup really put it over the top. That morning, I realized we were out of syrup, and the kids and I walked down to the snooty co-op down the street. I really hate walking into that place, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and put up with people looking down at you for bringing two perfectly normal kids to a store. The GOOD part of this store is that we were able to bottle our own syrup (the local stuff was cheaper than the Vermont kind) and it tasted delicious.

Just don't be surprised if you find my sneaking down to the kitchen in the middle of the night sneaking syrup...