Lemon-Berry Puff Pancake
This recipe is based on one printed over 40 years ago in The New York Times. Called David Eyre’s Pancake (Mr. Eyre, a Honolulu resident, had served it to Times writer Craig Claiborne at his home), it was the most "requested reprint" New York Times recipe ever run, up to that time.
And for good reason. A rather unprepossessing flour, milk, and egg batter is poured into a pan, and 20 minutes later emerges as a giant golden puff, awaiting a final anointing of lemon juice and sugar. It’s delicious; it’s easy; and who cares if it settles back a bit from its glorious oven-fresh heights as it cools? Part popover, part crêpe, part pancake, it combines the best aspects of all three. We like to serve it on a lazy Sunday morning, garnished with fresh berries, Sunday paper (New York Times?) close at hand.
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
small pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon lemon oil, optional
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) freshly squeezed lemon juice (juice of half a juicy lemon)
2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) confectioners’ sugar
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Melt the butter in an 11" straight-sided skillet, or a 12" skillet with straight or sloping sides. Make sure whatever you use is oven-proof. Or melt the butter, and pour it into a 10" square pan, or 12" round deep-dish pizza pan. Yes, the size of the pan matters. Too small, it’ll overflow. Too large, it won’t puff as high. Try to find a pan or oven-proof skillet whose square-inch cooking surface is about 100 square inches.
Whisk together the flour, salt, nutmeg, sugar, milk, vanilla, lemon oil, and eggs till fairly smooth.
Pour the batter into the pan. Bake the pancake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until it’s very puffy and golden, with deeper brown patches. Remove it from the oven, and sprinkle with the lemon juice, then the sugar. Cut in squares, and serve immediately, garnished with fresh berries, if desired.
Yield: 4 generous servings.
Reviews
03/18/2009
I use King Arthur recipes a lot - I bake a lot of bread. I use the recipes because the recipes work well and the results are usually pretty good. (When things go wrong, I'm pretty sure it is the fault of the cook who looks at recipes as mere guides.) Anyway, because of an over-abundance of lemons, I decided to try out this recipe on a whim. The result was not nearly as good looking as the photo, but passable and fairly impressive. The taste was great - possibly the most impressive of any recipe I've made in a long time. (Although the lemon bread, too, is extremely delicious.)
The recipe is extremely easy to make, I would say under five minutes, not including baking time.
I do have one HUGE complaint, I can't figure out how to halve this recipe so that I can use it as an occasional treat for myself without too much guilt. Although I'm also thinking about making this for company and just making them in rapid succession, cutting them in small pieces.
Do try this - inexpensive (relatively), easy and delicious. Really.
Give us a call at the Baker's Hotline 802-649-3717 and we would be glad to help you halve the recipe. Mary @ KAF
05/08/2009
This is a relatively straightforward and easy recipe to do. I used a blender to mix everything up. My one comment is that there's just too much butter required in the recipe. The 3 T butter (or 1.5 ounces, which I weighed out) called for resulted in a layer of yellow oil when the batter was poured into my (straight sided 10-inch) pan. After baking, most of the butter had been absorbed by the pancake but there was also a thin layer of what looked like clarified butter on top of the pancake. I ended up scooping off the excess oil.
Having made several kinds of baked pancakes, this recipe produces one that doesn't rise very high and yes, it deflates quickly upon being pulled from the oven. The taste is average, its texture somewhere between a thick crepe and gummy pancake; not bad but not what I'm looking for.
Thank you for your observation. I have a recipe that calls for 3 T. butter for a similar recipe and encourage people who make it to use the butter to their taste or personal preference. I usually use 1 T. instead of the 3 T. with no adverse effects. Irene at KAF
08/24/2009
My nephew has stayed wiith us for the summer and is leaving tomorrow- he is begging me to MAKE THOSE PANCAKES AGAIN!!!!
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