German Pancakes

Here's a recipe for one of my favorite lazy morning treats.

3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Coat large cast iron pan with oil. Place pan in oven to preheat. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Whip eggs with french whip until well mixed. Combine flour and salt (original recipe says to sift, but I never do). Add flour and salt to eggs in four additions, beating just until smooth after each addition. Add milk in two additions, beating slightly after each. Lightly beat in melted butter. Pour batter into cast iron pan (carefully!) and bake for 15 minutes at 450. After 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake for 10 more minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! Top with syrup and powdered sugar and enjoy!

German pancakes are my favorite, and they're so easy to make, but they make you look like a fabulous cook. Look:

However, take note of the all caps "DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR." Don't do it. Not ever. Your pancake will fall and it will cook funny. Just trust me.

If you don't have a cast iron pan, you should buy one. Just kidding. Well, actually, you should, since cast iron pans are good to have, both for cooking and for weapons. The point is that you don't really need one for this recipe. You could do it in a glass cake pan, but if you do, don't preheat the pan with the oven, and you'll have to cook it at 450 for 25 minutes instead of 15. Still cook it for 10 at 350 though.

Here's some more advice. When pouring the batter into the pan, be very careful. If you're not, you might accidentally touch the very hot pan handle and end up looking like this:

In case you can't tell, that's my arm, and the nasty red streak is an incredibly painful burn.

Also, this doesn't really feed that many people, so if you're feeding more than four, you should probably double it. Don't worry about using a bigger pan or anything - they'll just be thicker.

So, grasshoppers: mix, bake and enjoy! Carefully.