Wild Berry Dutch Pancake

It brings me such peace and joy to spend the early hours of my weekend mornings, with my sweet darling and her four year old personality. She's the first one to rise out of bed every morning, and the first smiles of my day are plastered to her giggling face as she tries to pull me from my cherished sleep. She is so eager to jump into the day, and not wanting to stand in the way of such enthusiasm,  I muster up all that I've got and get to it. If the sun is shinning, then we head outside. We water the garden, walk down to the beach to skip rocks and dip our toes in the water, or pick wild berries that grow along the ridges surrounding our house. I forget about the attention span of a young child, and before long Addie is running through the sprinkler as I finish up the berry picking. I hardly mind. There is nothing that could disturb the moment. As I switch to drinking coffee in a lounge chair, my darling secretly eats wild berries which is evident by her blue fingerprints. She then reminds me that it's a pancake morning, and we get to it.

I'm always game for a new pancake recipe, and so when I stumbled upon a recipe in Bon Appetit, I was curious. The recipe is originally called Peach Dutch Baby Pancake with Cherry Compote. The name alone was a challenge for Addie. The objective of the recipe was to utilize seasonal peaches and cherries. We had wild berries. I skipped the compote part of the recipe. I wanted the berries in the pancake. This pancake is one that requires a preheated oven, a preheated skillet, and about 20 minutes of baking time- no flipping necessary. This recipe was easy to put together, and the finished cake reminded me of an eclair shell filled with berries and drizzled with maple syrup. Yum!

the Pancake:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a blender combine the following ingredients;
2 Tbls butter, melted
4 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1 Tbls sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Blend batter until smooth, then set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add;
2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls sugar
cook,  stirring constantly, until sugar starts to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Add about 1 1/2 cups wild berries to the skillet and turn off the heat. Pour in the prepared pancake batter evenly over the caramelized berries and transfer to the oven.

Bake the pancake until puffed and golden brown all over, 17-20 minutes (it will deflate as soon as it's removed from the oven). Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately, with a drizzle of maple syrup or honey. Belly up!!