My favorite weekend routine besides sleeping in until 10:00 a.m. (I love my Temper Pedic bed!) and looking forward to getting my cappuccino served in bed by Mike is calling my mum as well as trying to catch up with at least one of my friends either in Germany or other parts of this world. This gives Mike some time to catch up with his latest obsession – a Pirate Game on Xbox. So yeah in the background I hear …”What will we do with a drunken sailor, what will we do with a drunken sailor…early in the morning?” But the things we do for love and for getting a cappuccino served in bed!

Last Sunday it was time to catch up with my friend Sandra. Sandra and I go WAY back in time…we met at the University of Cologne. Sandra and her friend Petra, who also became one of my best friends, were these cool hip (and super smart) students who looked gorgeous, dressed cool and were just full of adventure. Thank god those two took pity on me and became my friends. It would be a looooong blog entry explaining on how they changed my life but lets say I was the most boring conservative person who was spending way too much time on looking and acting like a 40 year old professional business person, taking the life of a student way too serious, where the rest of the cool kids would spend their time doing fun stuff. We became unlikely friends first and then grew to an inseparable trio spending almost 24×7 together and experiencing the most amazing 10 years together prior to me moving to the US and everyone going their own ways with job, partner and family.

So when we spoke on Sunday I shared with Sandra my latest hobby – writing this blog – and the next recipe I would be posting – my Apple Pancake recipe – and since Sandra was interested in learning how to make it I am dedicating this recipe to her!

Apple (or Fruit) Pancake aka Dutch Baby:

Ingredients:

• 1 apple peeled and cut into thin slices
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Powdered Sugar
• Optional: Maple Syrup, Berry sauce, Chocolate Sauce, Whipped Cream, Bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
2. If you use apples, peel the apple and cut it into thin slices. If you use other fruit, I would just add them prior to serving but you could also put them in the bottom of the pan and then pour the batter over it.
3. Warm up the butter on medium heat in a cast iron pan, add the apples and brown sugar, stir and cook for 5 minutes on low heat, occasionally stirring so that the sugar doesn’t burn
4. Meanwhile put the eggs, flour, milk sugar and vanilla in a blender. Blend on high until frothy, about 30 seconds.
5. Pour the egg mixture over the apples and transfer the cast iron pan to the preheated oven and bake for 17 – 20 minutes.
6. Once done, remove the cast iron pan from the oven (with oven mitts, the pan and handle are scorching hot) and set the pan on a trivet. Dust the pancake with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

Note: Once you pull the pancake out of the oven it will deflate very quickly. I usually set the table in advance and have all the toppings ready – such as maple syrup, chocolate sauce, berry sauce, whipped cream and a side of bacon (this is if you want to go all out with a bigger crowd, the pancake also tastes good just as is with powdered sugar) and then set the cast iron pan on the table and have everyone serve themselves. Not only does it look rustic its also more fun to have everybody serve themselves.

A toast to great friends and Guten Appetit!