Black Forest Dutch Baby

Ugh… we’re having a snow day here in Virginia so I was looking online for some recipe inspiration and I stumbled upon a yummy looking Chocolate Dutch Baby (or German pancake), which got me thinking… what if I took that chocolate idea and elevated it a bit by adding sweetened whipped cream and a delicious cherry topping? That was it - I decided making a Black Forest Dutch Baby would be part of my snow day activities! So glad I did because it’s definitely a treat worth trying, snow day or not.

We’ll start by making the cherry topping. In a skillet over medium-high heat, combine tart cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and a salt. I used tart cherries I stashed away in the freezer this past spring, but if you have fresh tart cherries, you can certainly use ‘em.

Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to boil; continue cooking for a full minute, then turn off the heat.

mmmm… set the yummy cherry topping aside until needed.

The Dutch Baby (German Pancake) is really easy to make… just preheat an oven-proof skillet in your hot oven, melt the butter in the skillet and swirl it all around, then pour the excess melted butter into the a blender with all the other dutch baby ingredients, give it a whirl, and pour the batter into the prepared skillet. For some reason I didn’t get any photos while I was making the chocolate dutch baby, but you can see exactly how it’s done here in my Vanilla Dutch Baby post from a few years ago. The only difference, besides this one being chocolate instead of vanilla, is that this recipe is made in a smaller skillet.

The Dutch Baby will puff up in the oven and collapse almost immediately upon removal. To serve, cut the dutch baby into 4 wedges and top with sweetened whipped cream and the cherry topping. Enjoy!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• 9-inch cast iron skillet https://amzn.to/2ROOgn4

• pure almond extract https://amzn.to/2VRjqJB

• really good dutch processed cocoa powder https://amzn.to/3oHW09H

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Black Forest Dutch Baby

makes one 9-inch skillet, 4 servings

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Cherry Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups (140g) tart cherries, fresh or frozen, pitted

• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 tablespoons (6g) cornstarch

• pinch of fine salt

• 1/16 (6 drops) pure almond extract

Chocolate Dutch Baby:

• 2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter

• 2 large eggs (100g), room temperature

• 1 tablespoon (12.5g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

• 3 tablespoons (25g) all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 tablespoons (7.5g) dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted

• 1/4 cup (61g) whole milk

Directions

To make the cherry topping:

1. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and salt; bring to a boil, stirring constantly; continue cooking for a full minute.

2. Remove from heat and stir in pure almond extract; set aside until needed.

To make the chocolate dutch baby:

1. Preheat oven and 9-inch cast iron skillet in the center of a 425F oven.

2. In a blender, combine the eggs, sugar, salt, flour, cocoa, and milk; set aside until the next step.

3. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and add the butter.

4. Swirl pan until butter is completely melted and coats the entire pan; pour excess butter into batter and mix to combine.

5. Slowly pour the batter into the hot, buttered skillet and return to the oven; bake for 12-15 minutes or until the dutch baby puffs up (it will deflate almost immediately when removed from the oven so don’t be alarmed when this happens).

6. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before topping with cherry topping and lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Note

• Try not to pour all the batter into the skillet in one spot - the force of the pour will remove the butter coating in the pour spot and the pancake will inevitably end up sticking. To avoid this, I like to hold an upside down serving spoon a few inches over the skillet and pour the batter slowly over the back of the spoon while moving the spoon around the skillet. This helps diffuse the force of the pour.

cherry topping adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum from Real Baking with Rose; chocolate dutch baby adapted from Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen.

Freezing Cherries

Fresh cherries are in season and I thought I'd show you how easy it is to freeze them for future use.  This technique works for sweet or tart cherries.  

Start with clean cherries.  Remove all stems and pits.  I like to use a nifty cherry pitter - it's kind of fun.... and as you can see, a little messy too.  Totally worth it though.

Actually, you can freeze cherries without pitting them, but I prefer to use a cherry pitter to get the pesky pits out before freezing.

Place the pitted cherries in a single layer on a sheet pan and pop them in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.  I've lined my pan with plastic wrap to keep the cherries from sticking and for easy cleanup.  Parchment paper would work too. 

If you have a side-by-side freezer, a quarter sheet pan should fit.

Here's how my cherries looked after they were frozen overnight.

Transfer the frozen cherries in a freezer-grade storage bag and place in freezer.  That's all there is to it.

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Items used:

(affiliate links)

• cherry pitter https://amzn.to/3gvE8tV

• quarter sheet pan https://amzn.to/3BbaN1t

• chic wrap https://amzn.to/3BbbBn1

• freezer bags https://amzn.to/3LmtkNa