Taking a Break- Jammies, Sunday Pancake, and Super Bowl..

Well, lucky me.  It's sunny outside, and with a little space heater action, toasty and bright on my sunporch, my favorite reading porch.  Equipped with my Christmas-Present Kindle, the Sunday NYT, and the Sunday N&O, not a thing to do except hope no one comes over (jammies, remember?) and read on my sunny porch.

P's pancake,  just out of the oven.. 

For the third Sunday in a row, P made his new weekend favorite breakfast (and mine).  It's a lovely little puff pancake, just big enough for two, made in our ancient cast iron skillet. The recipe calls for a 12 inch skillet, but I think ours is 10 inch and it works perfectly. The pancake recipe has been around, with a few modifications, since at least 1966.  Craig Claiborne recalls in a 1985 article in the New York Times that he discovered the pancake 20 years prior at a holiday brunch given by friends in Hawaii.  His friend David Eyre presented the pancake, Craig published it, and as far as I can tell the only thing that Craig did was change increase the butter by a tablespoon and use 1/2 cup of flour instead of 1/3.  P's hot-from-the-oven is pictured above.

Below is a photo of David's pancake as rendered by Craig Claiborne..

The pancake is given a squeeze of fresh lemon and a sifting of
confectioner's sugas as son as it comes from the oven. 

Here is the recipe:

SERVES 2 TO 4

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons (one half stick) of unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• Juice of half a lemon

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the flour, milk, eggs, and nutmeg in a bowl. Beat lightly. Leave the batter a little lumpy.
2. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet with a heatproof handle. When it is very hot, pour in the batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pancake is golden brown.
3. Sprinkle with the sugar and return briefly to the oven. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and serve with jelly, jam, or marmalade.

If you want, you can make little
individual servings, sort of like
Dutch Babies, but I like the
cast iron skillet

The lemon squeeze adds to the delicate flavor

In my humble opinion, "serves 2-4" is whacko.  It just serves two.. Here is my plate on the sunporch. In the summer it would be great with fresh berries.  Last week we had it with brown sugar/ black pepper bacon..

My plate... yum!