I often wake up with a desire for a hot, savory breakfast. Cereal and smoothies have their place, but there's nothing like a hot breakfast. The only problem with a hot breakfast is when you have to be the one to make it for yourself. Enter a mostly hands-off breakfast that satisfies all of the things you'd want or need in a breakfast:
- Hot
- Savory
- Easy to make
- High protein
Think of a Dutch baby as an eggy baked pancake. It is not the same as a Dutch pancake, or pannekoeken, which I have also made on this blog. One of the best parts about it, besides everything mentioned above, is that it's a great way to get some greens in early in your day. I often find that it's not easy to slip in greens to the first meal of the day unless it's in a smoothie — until now.
Microgreens have a lot of nutrients in packed into their small leaves, and eating them first thing in the morning can improve your digestion throughout the day. You can find microgreens in the Microgreen Directory to see where they can be sourced and purchased nearest you.
Other than microgreens, you will need an oven-safe skillet to make a Dutch baby. Most people use cast iron, but an enameled Le Creuset or an Our Place Always Pan works perfectly too, just make sure it's specifically listed as oven-safe for up to 400F. You'll end up with a mess and no breakfast otherwise!
One of the best parts of making a Dutch baby is how customizable it is. You can use a different cheese each time for a new taste. You can also use different sized skillets depending on how large of one you want to make. The recipe below is for a 10.25" cast iron Le Creuset skillet.
Savory, Cheesy Dutch Baby with Microgreens
Equipment
- 1 10.25" oven safe skillet
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter cut into 3 equal pieces
- 6 eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 3-4 ounces high-quality shredded or crumbled cheese (see combination ideas below)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 handful microgreens
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Blend together the eggs, milk, flour, salt, and pepper. I used a Nutribullet, but you can also use a regular or immersion blender. Once you're done blending, add half of the cheese to this mixture.
- Once the oven is hot, place the 3 pieces of butter in the skillet and place into the oven for 1 minute to let the butter melt.
- Carefully pull the pan out of the oven and swirl the melted butter around the pan.
- Pour the egg mixtures into the pan. Top with the remaining cheese and put back into the oven on the bottom rack.
- Bake for 20 minutes. The egg mixture will puff up the sides of the pan.
- Slice, and top with microgreens and additional salt and pepper to taste.
As you can see, most of the time spent on this dish is it baking in the oven, and the ingredients are just thrown into a blender at the beginning — which makes this a very hands off dish!
A Dutch baby is best eaten directly after it is cooked, but I did save a quarter of mine and reheated it in the oven again the next day. It wasn't as good but it was good enough. If you plan to do this, do not add microgreens to the piece that'll be reheated in the oven, it will destroy the microgreens and not be good.
Cheese and Microgreen Combinations
- Cheddar and broccoli microgreens
- Goat cheese and arugula microgreens
- Beer or pub cheese and mustard microgreens
- Brie and spicy microgreens
- Parmesan and snow pea microgreens
- Aged gouda and sunflower microgreens
- Feta and radish microgreens
Not sure where to find microgreens? The Microgreen Directory has listings of hundreds of microgreen farmers in the United States, and more great recipes for how to get more microgreens in your daily diet!
