This scrumptious Blueberry Dutch Baby is the final featured recipe from the gorgeous new cookbook First We Eat by Eva Kosmas Flores. This beautiful garden-to-table book will inspire you throughout the year to eat fresh and seasonal ingredients in dishes (and cocktails!) that are both simple and elegant. First We Eat is divided by season, each beginning with a menu, and also offers a guide to staple ingredients, homemade pantry basics, and tips for sourcing your ingredients. Get a perfect-for-spring menu below from some of the recipes I featured this week. In Summer, enjoy dishes like Feta-and-Paprika-Stuffed Squash Blossoms, along with Salt-Baked Trout with Sweet Pepper and Lemon, and Watermelon and Mint Blossom Granita. As the temperatures cool down, Autumn brings us dishes such as Pumpkin and Date Cassoulet, Chai and Poppy Challah (check out her amazing how-to video on Instagram!) and her Hot Buttered Hazelnut Milk. In Winter, try her Seared Scallops with Brown-Butter-Sage-Roasted Rutabaga Puree, the Braised Pork Spareribs with Fig and Anise, and for dessert the Rosemary-and-Date Roulade with Brown-Butter Buttercream. And that's just a taste of what this beautiful cookbook offers. Get her lovely cookbook here. You'll truly love it as much as I do.
Be sure and get these other delicious recipes from First We Eat for a lovely spring meal:
Snap Pea Salad with Preserved Lemon and Goat Cheese Medallions
Black Pepper Rack of Lamb with Red Currant and Rhubarb Glaze
Rhubarb-Ginger Planter's Punch
Blueberry Dutch Baby
— Serves 4 —
"A Dutch baby is basically one giant, delicious, custardy pancake. If you’re from the United Kingdom, you know it as a Yorkshire pudding, and it’s more of a savory supper accompaniment, but here in the States, it is mainly a breakfast thing. You preheat the oven to a high temperature with a skillet inside, pour the batter into the skillet when it’s hot, and bake. The edges of the pancake curl up and get really puffy, giving this dish major presentation points. You can throw any bits of seasonal fruit into the batter for extra flavor, but my all-time favorite for this is late-spring blueberries. I incorporate some into the batter, and I also make a simple blueberry sauce for serving on top along with a dollop of crème fraîche and sliced almonds. This recipe goes particularly well with my Rosemary and Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup. You can, of course, use regular maple syrup, but this special syrup really kicks it up a notch." ~Eva Kosmas Flores
BLUEBERRY SAUCE
1 cup (145 g) fresh blueberries
⅓ cup (65 g) sugar
DUTCH BABY
⅔ cup (90 g) bread flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ cup (50 g) ground ginger
¼ teaspoon flake kosher sea salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
⅔ cup (165 ml) whole milk, at room temperature
⅓ cup (65 g) sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (220 g) fresh blueberries
4 tablespoons (. stick/55 g)
unsalted butter, cut into individual tablespoons, at room temperature
2 tablespoons crème fraîche or full-fat vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 teaspoon edible flowers (optional)
Rosemary and Vanilla Bean Ma pleSyrup (page 25), for serving (optional)
—For the blueberry sauce, combine the blueberries, sugar, and ¼ cup (60 ml) water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the blueberries burst and the sauce cooks down and becomes thick and jammy, 10 to 14 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
—For the Dutch baby, preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Set an 11-inch (28-cm) au gratin pan or oven-safe skillet inside to preheat for at least 30 minutes.
—In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. Set aside.
—In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs on medium-high speed until frothy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the milk, sugar, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in 1 cup (145 g) of the blueberries by hand.
—Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and add the butter to the pan, swirling it slightly to help the butter melt quickly. Take care, as the butter will hiss and spit a bit when it hits the hot pan. Pour the batter into the pan and place it back in the oven. Bake until the pancake looks puffy and the edges curl up and are golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes.
—Remove and garnish with the crème fraîche or yogurt and blueberry sauce. Top with the almonds, edible flowers (if using), and the remaining ½ cup (75 g) blueberries and serve along with the maple syrup, if desired.
Recipe and images excerpted with permission from First We Eat by Eva Kosmas Flores, published by Abrams. All Rights Reserved.
