Apple Pancake

But it's just one big pancake, not a bunch of little ones. It's from a cookbook Mom got me for Christmas a couple years back called "Best of the Best from America Cookbook." This one's from Massachusetts. It's supposed to be baked in the oven in a 10 inch cast iron skillet, but I don't have one of those, so I used a 10 inch deep dish stoneware pie plate. This thing rises to nearly double while it's baking, I mean like 2-3 inches above the top of the pie plate. Surprising, the first time I looked in the oven to check on it. Not sure if it would do the same thing in cast iron, or if the sides are just taller in that so it wouldn't seem to rise so high but really it does. Anyway...

Berkshire Apple Pancake

3 apples

3 eggs, beaten

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

5 tbsp sugar

2 cups milk

3/4 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp cinnamon

5 tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 450. Peel and core apples. Coarsely chop 2 1/2 apples. Slice remaining 1/2 apple into thin spirals for garnish on top (I did not do this. I ate the last 1/2 apple while I was doing the other stuff). Brush spirals with lemon juice to prevent darkening (if you do that, I guess) and set them aside. Mix the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and chopped apples together in a bowl. Mix until combined, although the batter will remain lumpy. Melt butter in 10 inch cast iron frying pan. Pour batter into pan, and arrange reserved apple spirals on top. Bake @ 450 for 15 minutes. Then turn oven down to 350 and bake for 40 minutes, or unitl toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (took like 34 minutes for me). Remove pan from oven & allow to rest x 5 minutes. Sprinkle w/ brown sugar, cut into wedges, and serve with maple syrup.

As I said, I used a pie pan, and the butter overflowed a bit from the edges when I poured the batter in. So that was kind of messy. I had to put a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie plate to catch the dripping butter. But by the time I turned the heat down, the pancake had risen up and the butter stopped dripping so I took the cookie sheet out. If I made it again (and Steve thinks I should) I would use less butter in a pie pan, but I think in cast iron that would still be the right amount.

Steve loved this, said it was good enough for company. Emma didn't like it, even though before it was set before her she claimed to love both pancakes and apples. She ate 3 bites, 2 of them under duress. Sam ate all of his and the rest of Emma's and said it was delicious. Oh yeah, I liked it too. But I think I won't make it for company, because unless it's family it's weird to have people over and serve breakfast for supper. I think. And even if we had houseguests sleeping over, it still takes like a total of an hour and a half between prep & baking times, so there's no way that's even practical for breakfast. Especially me and my not-morning-ness.

On a sad note, I used the last of my Watkins vanilla in this recipe last night. =( Now I'm on to the Pampered Chef vanilla I got as a freebie at some point. We'll see how that goes. Anyway talk to you both soon and have a great day!!