WDM, IA - Baked Apple Pancake

Long ago, when we lived in Minnesota, we used to get breakfast at a restaurant named Pannekoeken which had a signature dish called, appropriately, a Pannekoeken. It was essentially pancake mix poured on top of apples sprinkled with cinnamon and, because it had several eggs in it, rose quite high while baking. However, it slowly settled as it cooled. Thus, the waitresses used to speed out of the kitchen with the dish held high, yelling ‘Pannekoeken’ so that everyone would clear their paths as they rushed the pannekoeken to the table before it fell.

And, here is a picture of the creation. Makes you want to go right out to the kitchen and whip up some pancakes, right?

The restaurant has folded but the dish lives on in our memories. I found a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook and have baked it every now and then. I planned to cook it tonight so while shopping on Saturday, I bought some apples for it. I also bought some honey crisp apples and, to differentiate them from the baking apples, I left the sticker on them.

I mixed up the pancake mix and turned to get the apples out of the basket, turned several over looking for the stickers. No stickers. Sure enough, Gary had ‘helped’ me out and had removed the stickers for me so we wouldn’t eat them. He did think it a bit strange that I hadn’t removed them but just thought me distracted with the coming trip.

Oops. Well, those honey crisp apples will taste mighty good in the pannekoeken. Now, here’s the official Betty Crocker recipe which will serve 2:

                2 Tbs stick butter
                2 large eggs
                1/2 C all purpose flour
                1/2 C milk
                1/4 tsp salt
                1 apple
                1/2 tsp cinnamon
                2 Tbs packed brown sugar
        

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 “, in oven. brush butter on side of pie plate.

1. Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with wire whisk or hand beater. Beat in remaining ingredients until mixed. Do not overbeat. Mixture will be slightly lumpy.

1. Sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar on the melted butter, thinly slice apples and arrange them on the pie plate on top of the cinnamon and brown sugar.

1. Pour batter over the apples.

1. Bake 25 - 30 minutes.

1. Turn upside down on serving plate.

1. Run to the table yelling ‘pannekoeken’.

Now, if you think I use these ingredients, you haven’t been reading the blog. I used Pam, Eggbeaters, skim milk, calorie-less sugar and sugar-free syrup. Do you think that our pannekoeken tasted like raw flour or do you think it tasted like ‘more’? You can cook it any way you wish but, trust me here, I’ve served my pannekoeken to others and they thougth it tasted like ‘more’.