Oven Apple Pancake

Dinah's Restaurant in Westchester makes a Dutch Oven Apple Pancake. It's so special that the menu warns it will take a little extra time. I'm not sure if this is their recipe, because my name is on my recipe card. I probably adapted it from theirs.

One of the reasons I seem to use apples so much is that I have a really cool gadget that cores, slices and peels apples with a few turns of a handle. I like the skin, so I usually don't use the peeler option. I got mine from Pampered Chef, but there are other sources. I think this is the one I bought for my brother.

The pancake in the photo is a half-recipe done in an 8" skillet. You can cut it down to 1/3 recipe in a 6", and just have more apple (or eat some of it while the pancake is in the oven). Unfortunately, you can't cut down the proportion of the butter, or the pancake won't come out of the pan, even a nonstick one.

2 cooking apples (I like gala), cored and thinly sliced

1/4 C butter

1/4 C brown sugar

6 eggs

1 C milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tb sugar

1 C flour

1. Preheat oven to 400º. In the largest oven-safe skillet you have (10" or 12"), melt butter. Over medium heat, cook apples. Once tender, stir in brown sugar and lower heat to simmer.

2. In a bowl, beat eggs until slightly frothy. Beat in milk, vanilla, salt, and sugar. Slowly beat in flour until no lumps remain.

3. Arrange apples neatly in bottom of skillet. Pour batter over the apples. Place skillet in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden and fluffy. It's going to start to collapse the instant you take it out, so serve immediately topped with cinnamon sugar.

Serves 4 to 6

Difficulty rating  :)