Dutch Baby With Apple, For 2

My amazing relatives Alyssa and Chris prepared a “Dutch Baby” for their Sunday brunch recently.  The dish is one that I learned a long time ago from Maria, a lovely Hungarian woman who whipped up the most elegant dishes while hardly ever looking at a recipe.  She did have this one written down, flowing longhand on an ancient yellowed recipe card.

Seeing what Chris and Alyssa had made inspired me to try this dish again.  I drew on what I remembered Maria teaching me, along with the New York Times Cooking recipe, and came up with this.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, divided
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and sliced into small pieces
• 1 tsp Confectioners' sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine eggs, flour, milk,  half of brown sugar, and nutmeg in the blender, and blend until smooth. Batter may also be whisked together by hand.  The batter should rest 30 minutes to allow flour to hydrate.
3. Place a heavy 8-inch skillet or baking dish in the oven to heat.
4. Combine the apple slices, one tablespoon butter, cinnamon, and remaining brown sugar in a pan, over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently, until apples are tender and evenly coated.
5. Remove the skillet or baking dish from the oven, and add the remaining one tablespoon of butter.  As soon as the butter has melted (watch it so it does not burn) add the cooked apples and the batter to the skillet.
6. Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake five minutes longer.
7. Remove pancake from oven, and let it rest for a few minutes.  It should loosen in the pan.  Cut into slices and dust with Confectioners' sugar.