A puffed pancake is my simple solution to breakfast and brunches. Unlike cooking pancakes on a griddle or in a pan, preparing a puffed pancake requires no painstaking attentiveness, a virtue I lack early in the morning. I simply whip the ingredients together, pour them in a hot pan, and let the oven finish my work. This pancake puffs to 6 inches or higher in a hot oven, like a giant golden crown, but it deflates rapidly once you remove it from the oven, so don’t linger in the kitchen too much.
SERVES 6 TO 8
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 6 eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ cup high-extraction wheat or einkorn flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 lemon, cut into 6 or 8 wedges, to serve
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Melt the butter in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. When the butter froths, turn off the heat and let it be.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and honey until uniformly combined.
- Beat in the flour, salt, and lemon zest.
- Pour the batter into the buttered skillet.
- Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until the pancake rises and puffs.
- Remove the skillet from the oven, let your guests admire the pancake, then cut it into wedges and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing.
