A Dutch Baby and a See Ya Later!

We threw Burger's a little going away party yesterday - a last YaYa gathering because she is off to live in the big apple! Boo.

As is custom in YaYa gatherings, we made food, and loads of dessert but this time, it being summer and all, we decided to make kabobs and grill. 

Only... I don't have a grill because I was unable/unwilling to handle a gas leak situation, so I did what I thought made sense at the time and just threw the grill away...? 

Anyway, I bought a cast iron grill pan thinking that would solve my problem, but my advice is this: when using your grill pan for grilling indoors, have all windows/doors to your home open and a friend fanning any smoke detectors throughout the indoor grilling process. 

But anything less than a spectacle would make for a boring dinner party, right?

And it was fiiiiiine...

Burgers and Lauren with our simple dinner of kabobs, wild mushroom couscous (from a box y'all!) and our favorite elderflower and basil lemonade.

For dessert we had: Godiva chocolates, chocolate chip cookies from Fresh Market, an amazing apple cake from our Mama YaYa, and because we're no quitters, we decided to make a peach almond dutch baby to round it all out. 

We had originally talked about making super rich brownies, but decided this was a far better choice because it's the perfect summer dessert (or breakfast!). To distinguish it from anything you may have for breakfast, we topped ours off with vanilla gelato and caramel sauce. :)

In the words of Miley, "We can't stop. We won't stop."

I adapted the recipe from SmittenKitchen and her recipe for a cherry almond dutch baby because it was the right thing to do. And obviously you can use anything that floats your boat. I'm thinking bananas, apples, cherries, blueberries, you get the idea. These guys are incredibly easy to make - because they're best served right out of the oven, I made the batter right before dinner and sautéed the peaches, added the batter and popped it in the oven as we were hankering for dessert. To that point, it isn't too late to put this together for your Sunday Brunch.

You Will Need:

3 large eggs

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp almond extract (more or less to taste)

pinch of salt

4 Tbsp butter

2 cups sliced peaches (or fruit of your choice)

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

powdered sugar

lemon wedges

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk egg, sugar, flour, milk, extract, and salt together until batter is blended but lumpy. 

In a 12" ovenproof frying pan (or cast iron skillet), melt butter. Add fruit and cooked until warmed, about 2 minutes. Pour in batter and transfer to heated oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and rumpled looking. 

Remove pancake from oven and quickly scatter with toasted almonds, dust with powdered sugar and serve with lemon wedges, piping hot. 

Caramelizing peaches in my brand new skillet!

Add that batter in!

And the finished product. :)

Best of luck Burgers on your new adventure! We'll see you later girl!