oooh (dutch) baby!
Dutch baby topped with lemon sugared strawberries & ricotta cream
I have to admit: we’ve been in a breakfast rut of sorts. Pre-quarantine life, my husband and I used to treat ourselves each weekend to a trip to a local diner. We’d enjoy huge breakfasts of giant stacks of pancakes, waffles topped with bright strawberries & whipped cream, crispy bacon, corned beef hash, runny eggs… Ugh, I can’t even go on. I miss diners so much! That must be the Jersey girl in me.
Now that we’ve been doing breakfast at home, I got into a sort of routine with our breakfast menu. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, an occasional omelette, toast… some weekends I’ll whip up some pancakes and fry up some bacon. All very typical and easy. So when I saw one of my favorite recipe bloggers, Half Baked Harvest, post a whole Instagram story making a Dutch baby, I was glued and had to try it.
I had never seen a Dutch baby straight out of the oven before, and it was quite the sight! Now, if you don’t know what a Dutch baby is, it’s similar to a pancake but way more fun. The pancake batter is made of the usual ingredients: flour, milk, eggs, and melted butter (well, maybe that’s not typical as pancakes usually call for oil rather than butter). But the fun and exciting part is all in the cooking process! This breakfast treat starts on the stove, but is quickly transferred to the oven where it produces a beautiful rise. I definitely geeked out over this part, and if it wasn’t for the other steps needed to prepare the toppings, I would’ve posted up right in front of the oven to just watch this Dutch baby balloon up in the oven.
Keep reading and scrolling below to see what I mean!
I stayed pretty close to the original recipe here, including the lemon strawberry and ricotta cream topping. I’ve been loving strawberries this season, and had a huge tub of ricotta in the fridge, so decided to just try out the whole thing.
Going through the whole process, I’m so glad I took the time to prep and measure all of my ingredients before I started. Much of the process for the actual Dutch baby moves pretty quickly, so you’ll want to have your strawberries sliced, lemon zested, etc. all before you really get into it.
So, first thing’s first… pre-heat the oven to 450F and slice your strawberries.
Then, zest a whole lemon and mix it with granulated sugar to make lemon sugar.
Once you’ve got your lemon sugar, take about a third of the sliced strawberries and set them aside. Mix about two tablespoons of the lemon sugar with the other two-thirds of sliced strawberries. Let them sit and soak in that lemon sugar flavoring. The lemon sugar strawberries will be your topping.
Once you’ve got your strawberries and lemon sugar prepped, make the batter. While you’re making the batter, I recommend starting to heat up your skillet. You’ll need it to be hot, hot, hot!
Mix your batter ingredients until the batter is smooth and you don’t have any large clumps. When the batter is near-ready, throw two tablespoons of butter on the hot skillet and brown it. Once the butter is browned, pour your batter into the skillet. Quickly grab your fresh strawberries (the one-third that you didn’t mix with the lemon sugar), and lay them across the wet batter. Then pop the skillet into the oven for about 15 minutes, and watch the magic. Be sure not to open up the oven during the first 15 minutes or else your beautiful Dutch baby balloon may deflate and you won’t get the wonderful rise.
Here’s a badly lit picture inside my oven of when I initially opened the door. You can see the full rise (as well as all of the burnt mess inside my oven, so please don’t judge me!).
Forcing myself away from the oven window while it was rising, I made the ricotta cream. This was actually very easy, so I was still had time to get back to the oven window and watch the Dutch baby bubble up. If it’s not coming across in my writing, I was really very excited about the rise. I think I was a little nervous I wouldn’t get this one right and it wouldn’t rise, so I was very relieved and excited that it actually did!
To make the ricotta cream, you’ll want to use cold ricotta straight from the fridge. This will help it to keep that creamy consistency. I did not do this. I took my ricotta out while I was making the batter and it got to room temperature by the time I was ready to make the cream, resulting in a pretty runny mixture. Being almost seven months pregnant, I get pretty fearful of that dreaded pregnancy brain and was trying very hard not to forget to make the ricotta cream in the first place.
Oh well… you live & you learn, and that’s the whole point of this blog for me anyway. I am a beginner baker after all, and I learned a good lesson about temperature and the effects on whipped cream.
Anyway, making the ricotta cream is very easy with a food processor. Just throw the ricotta into the food processor, turn it on high for a couple minutes, and you’ve got your cream. Then add in powdered sugar and vanilla to give it a sweet cream flavor.
Once your cream is made, your Dutch baby should be just about ready to take out of the oven. Open the door. Marvel at the beauty. Then quickly top with the lemon sugar strawberries and ricotta cream. Et voilà!
Dutch Baby Topped with Lemon Strawberries & Ricotta Cream
Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 20 mins | Total Time: 35 mins
Dutch Baby Ingredients:
4 large eggs, room temperature
4 tablespoons of butter. Separated as follows:
2 tablespoons, melted
2 tablespoons, room temperature
2/3 cup whole milk, room temperature
2/3 cup (85g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
Lemon Strawberry Topping Ingredients:
2/3 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Whipped Ricotta Cream Ingredients:
8 ounces whole milk ricotta, cold
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 450F.
In a bowl, make the lemon sugar by combining the granulated sugar & lemon zest. Toss 2/3 cup of strawberries with 2 tablespoons of lemon sugar. Set aside.
Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk together the milk, flour, eggs, salt, vanilla, and melted butter until the batter is smooth and no large clumps remain. Small clumps are okay.
While you’re preparing the batter, heat a large skillet over medium heat. In the hot skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and heat until the butter is browned, about 3-4 minutes.
When the batter is smooth enough and the butter is browned, pour the batter into the skillet. Arrange the 1/3 cup of fresh strawberries over the batter. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of lemon sugar over the batter & strawberries. Move the skillet into the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the pancake is fully puffed and browned on top.
DO NOT open the oven door during the first 15 minutes, or the Dutch baby may deflate.While the Dutch baby is in the oven, make the ricotta cream. Whip the cold ricotta in a food processor on high until it is smooth & creamy. Add in the powdered sugar & vanilla, and pulse to combine.
Remove the Dutch baby from the oven. Top with lemon sugar strawberries, additional lemon sugar to taste, and ricotta cream.
You’ve got a piece of my tart
Mini lemon tarts topped with homemade whipped cream and candied lemons
Guess I’m on a pie/pastry roll! Last week’s bake was good practice with some pastry and filling, but I obviously couldn’t wait for my tart pans to come in and luckily found the galette recipe to satisfy my pie craving. But this week, my tart pans arrived!
Remember how I told you about that little shopping addiction I’ve got? Well pair that with this habit I’ve got of jumping right into hobbies, and it makes for very little self-control. When I decided last week that I wanted to make all kinds of pies, pastries, and tarts, that translated to an Amazon order of all kinds of tart pans. You never know when you need to make one large tart or 6 mini-sized tarts, right? I like options, okay?
Anyway, I was so so so excited to test out my new tart pans and am still on a kick about mini bakes, so mini tarts it was! And I found this beautiful and actually very easy recipe from amazing lawyer-turned-baker, Vallery Lomas, for a lavender-honey lemon tart.
This recipe gave me some great practice with shortcrust pastry and my first ever curd! I have to admit: I was a little intimidated by the thought of making a lemon curd, but this recipe is super easy to follow. Just make sure to constantly whisk! I think that’s the part that intimidated me the most — curd is not something you can easily multi-task with. However, it does make for a great arm workout. That’s calories you burn making this, which basically justifies eating them right?!
While I would’ve loved to try out the lavender honey bit because that sounds so deliciously fancy, unfortunately lavender is not something on hand in my kitchen (or imaginary garden), so I essentially just skipped that part. However, don’t skip out on the candied lemon step! Even if candied lemons aren’t your thing taste-wise, they make for beautiful decorations. I also used my extra lemon zest to make a sugary, zesty sprinkling to top over the homemade whipped cream.
If you ever asked me 10 years ago if I could make homemade whipped cream, I probably would’ve just stared blankly at you and not have even known where to start. But it’s one of the easiest things to do! Throw it into a piping bag with a pretty tip, and you’re on the easy road to baking beauty!
MINI LEMON TART RECIPE
Shortcrust Pastry Ingredients: (makes 4 mini tarts or one full-sized tart)
1C (128g) all-purpose flour
1/4C (32g) powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2C (8 tbs) unsalted butter, melted
Lemon Curd Ingredients:
1/4C (85g) honey
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
4 large eggs
3/4C (150g) granulated sugar
4 lemons (2 tsp zest, 3/4C juice)
2 tbs unsalted butter, cubed
Candied Lemon Ingredients:
1/4C honey
1/4C water
1 Thinly sliced lemon (discard the ends)
Lemon Zest Sugar Sprinkle Ingredients:
2 tbs lemon zest
1/2 tbs granulated sugar
Whipped Cream Ingredients:
1C heavy cream
2 tbs confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until the dough comes together. If you’re making mini tarts, divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Press each piece into the bottom and up the sides of each of your tart pans. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350F. When the dough is ready, remove them from the refrigerate and prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork or toothpick. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and pie weights, and bake another 10-15 minutes or until golden. Let them cool on a wire rack.
While the crust cools, make the lemon curd. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 4 teaspoons of cold water. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, and lemon zest until combined. Whisk in the lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly or until thick and creamy. About 10 minutes.
You’ll know the curd is ready if it can thickly coat the back of a spoon and a stream remains visible when you run your finger across the spoon.Remove from heat and stir in te cubed butter until it melts into the curd. Stir in the gelatin mixture until combined.
Pour the curd into the cooled crust(s). Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until set. While the tarts are cooling, prepare your toppings.
To make the candied lemons, first preheat the oven to 275F. Then heat the honey and water in a large straight-sided skillet. Stir often to dissolve the honey. Add the lemon slices to the skillet. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the lemon slices from the syrup and arrange them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake 30-40 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn them once halfway through, but check every 10 minutes and remove each slice as they brown. Set aside until you’re ready to decorate your tarts.
To make the lemon zest topping, simply combine the lemon zest and granulated sugar. Set aside.
If you’re making the homemade whipped cream, I recommend waiting until you’re ready to serve the tarts. Whipped cream is best cold and fresh, and it will hold its shape best the sooner you serve. Using a hand or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in the bowl by whipping on medium-high speed until medium to stiff peaks form. This takes about 3-4 minutes, but don’t walk away from it! It only takes a fraction of time before it becomes over-mixed and will curdle. Dollop onto the tarts or use a piping bag for a more structured design.
Top with candied lemons and lemon zest sugar sprinkling. Serve and enjoy!
Galette me have some sweets!
Mini berry galettes
There’s something so appealing about mini desserts. It’s like because they’re smaller, they also pack less guilt… which also means I can have more, right?! I love the idea of mini pies, but don’t have any little mini pie pans, so when I came across this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs, Sally’s Baking Addiction, for mini fruit galettes, it just seemed like the perfect recipe to try!
If you’re like me, a galette may be an unfamiliar term and sounds very fancy. And if you do recall seeing these lovely little treats at a bakery, you’ve probably seen some very fancy & beautiful ones indeed. However, rest assured, they’re essentially just deconstructed pies! Which means no mini pan needed!
This was the perfect opportunity for me to practice some pastry crust AND get me a mini dessert. With the berries, they’re also kind of red-white-and blue, so 4th of July themed too right? Win-win all around!
Sally also has a great video tutorial on her site, so after watching that a few times, I took to the kitchen and here’s where I ended up:
Not too bad, if I say so myself! Especially for someone who had to even google what a galette is! I ended up with a mix of fresh blueberries and frozen raspberries just because that’s what I had in my fridge, but I’ll definitely be trying this again with different combinations of fruits and fillings.
Here’s the final recipe I ended up using, but all thanks to Sally at Sally’s Baking Addiction for the flaky pie crust recipe, direction on how to turn a pie crust into a galette, and inspo on the filling. Note, I cut the pie crust recipe in half so that I’d only have 4-5 galettes (there’s only 2 of us in my house, so there was no need to have too much temptations laying around at the end of the day!). I also don’t use shortening, so just add a couple more tablespoons of unsalted butter to make up for it.
MINI FRUIT GALETTE RECIPE
Flaky Pie Crust Ingredients:
1 1/4 C (158g) all-purpose flour
1/2 + 1/8 tsp salt
8 tbs (1/2 C) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1/4 C (60 mL) ice water
Tip: measure 1/4 C water then add ice and mix to get all of the water cold, then measure 1/4 C water from that mixture
2 tbs whole milk
Filling Ingredients:
1 1/2 C blueberries (mine were fresh, but you can use frozen ones too if that’s all you’ve got)
1 C raspberries (mine were frozen just because that’s what we had)
1 tbs (8g) cornstarch
2 tbs (25g) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Start by making the pie crust. You can either use a food processor or a pastry cutter. If using a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and butter until you have pea-sized bits. If using a pastry cutter, mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl, then add the butter. Cut the butter into the mixture until you have pea-sized bits.
Drizzle the ice water into the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time.
If using a food processor, continue to add the ice water until your mixture starts to stick together when hold it in your hands.
If you’re going the manual route, stir the water in 1 tablespoon at a time using a rubber spatula. Stop when the dough begins to form large clumps.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface. The dough should come together easily and not feel overly sticky. Use floured hands to fold the dough into itself until it’s fully incorporated.
Form the dough into a ball. Flatten it into a 1” thick disc using your hands. Wrap the disc tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 5 days).
While the dough is chilling, prep your filling. Combine the fruit, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla. Place in the refrigerator and let it sit.
Once the dough is chilled, unwrap it and place it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out using a rolling pin into a large 12 inch circle.
From the circle, cut out 5-6 inch circles. I used the rim of a bowl and pressed it down into the dough to get these circles. Continue to re-roll the dough until you get as many circles as you can.
Be sure to work quickly on this step as the dough gets harder to work with the warmer it gets.
Arrange your dough circles onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Take your filling from the refrigerator, and place about a quarter cup of filling in the center of each circle. Be sure to leave any excess juice in the filling bowl - if you have too much juice inside the dough, it’ll overflow as it bakes.
Once you’ve added your filling, gently fold the edges towards the center, pinching slightly as you fold each edge over the last fold and leaving the center exposed. You’ll want to make sure the edges are tightly folded so that it doesn’t unravel when it bakes.
Brush the edges of the pie dough with milk and sprinkle granulated or coarse sugar on top. This will give it a nice golden brown when it bakes.
Place the tray in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes or up to 4 hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 375F. You can do this while the galettes are chilling in the fridge.
Bake for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and carefully lift each galette from the baking tray and place onto a cooling rack. Cool for at least 5 minutes.
Optional: dust with confectioner’s sugar or top with whipped cream.
Enjoy!