Dutch Baby AKA German Pacake--easy & delicious oven pancake/popover

Here's a recipe that is incredibly easy to make, and is a real treat for a special breakfast.  It's sort of a cross-breed between a popover and a giant, eggy pancake, but you just mix it and stick it in the oven--no standing at the stove pouring and flipping and trying to keep things warm.  I can make 4 at the same time in my oven, and they all come out perfectly cooked and hot at the same time.  If you add the optional Vanilla, it makes it a bit more French-toast-like, but it's fine without it, too.

Dutch Baby Recipe
(Serves 1)

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons butter
½ cup milk
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs or 4 small eggs
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Vanilla (optional)
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
confectioners sugar (optional)

Instructions:
In a glass pie plate, put 3 Tablespoons butter, and place it in the oven while it preheats to 425 degrees. Place it on the middle rack, and rearrange or remove any racks above that so the Dutch Baby will have room to rise (4 inches free space at least).  Meanwhile, continue mixing the batter, but keep your eye on the butter every couple of minutes.  Remove the pan when the butter is melted (If the butter starts to brown, it will add great flavor, but watch it, because it will burn if left too long!).

In one bowl, stir the eggs until mixed.  Stir in the milk.  Add the vanilla (if using).  In separate bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Add the liquid ingredients and stir just until moistened and there are no more large lumps.  Your batter should have some small lumps.  (If you are having a particularly lazy morning, you CAN just throw everything into one bowl and mix, but I have better luck with the wet/dry method as described).

Using oven mitts, remove the pie pan with the melted butter from the oven and quickly pour the batter into the pan.  Quickly return the pan to the oven.

Bake 12-18 minutes, or until the sides of the Dutch Baby have risen and browned.  Do not be tempted to open the door because it may cause the sides of the Dutch Baby to collapse.  This works best if you have an oven light so you can keep track of the browning without having to open the door.

Once the sides are golden brown, remove the Dutch Baby and slide it onto the serving plate (if it is stuck, run a knife or fork underneath it all around to loosen it).  I like to sprinkle mine with lemon juice (from about ½ lemon) and then confectioners sugar, then serve with maple syrup. 

I usually double this recipe and use two separate pie plates so that each person has their own Dutch Baby (or quadruple it and use 4 pie plates if I have company), but you could triple or quadruple it and use a 9 ½ X 13 Pyrex dish if you wanted to make a huge one and cut it into slices to serve it. 

That Wikipedia link made me look around a bit, and I see that this is basically that same as a German Pancake.  I first heard it called Dutch Baby in Seattle, so maybe that's a regional thing.  I posted the recipe today because I got my first 8 eggs this week, and I'm planning to make Dutch Babies for breakfast tomorrow!

That wikipedia link has this information about the possible origin: "It is thought by some that the "Dutch" moniker refers to the group of German-American immigrants known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, where "Dutch" is a corruption of the German autonym "deutsch"." 

As for the rising, I do think it helps if the plate is hot when you add the batter.  sometimes they rise more than others.   I actually prefer them when they are somewhere in the middle, with a thick, creamy bottom and crisp golden brown sides.