Happy National Blueberry Pancake Day!

It's January 28 and I'm celebrating one of my favorite holidays - National Blueberry Pancake Day.  I'd like to eat a stack of pancakes filled with blueberries and topped with real maple syrup every day, but I don't.  I have probably eaten thousands over the years, from those first, fantastic, steaming cakes filled with just picked blueberries at Lake View Lodge in Paw, Paw, Michigan, to the short stack at the Coffee Company I thoroughly enjoyed recently.

This year I decided to honor this special day by mixing it up a little and trying a recipe that I've eaten but never made before.  For some reason I thought the Dutch Baby Pancake, which is baked in the oven, could only be made by professionals.  I was always in awe of the Yorkshire pudding-like puffiness that the pancake rose to, in the melted butter covered cast iron skillet.  Covered in a snowy blanket of powdered sugar, then finished off with a squeeze or two of fresh lemon, I thought this is what you order at a restaurant, not what you make at home.  I was wrong.

I adapted a simple recipe I found online, filled it with fresh blueberries and blood orange zest, and seriously I almost jumped for joy when it came out perfect from my very own oven.  A sprinkle of that snowy sugar and a few squeezes of blood orange juice and I was in National Blueberry Pancake Day heaven.  I can believe I ate the whole thing!

(Thanks to The Betty Crocker Cookbook via www.completelydelicious.com for the basic recipe.

Thanks to Melissa's Produce Company for the gorgeous, awesomely colored and flavored blood oranges.
Thanks Driscolls for the star of the show - the pleasingly plump blueberries.)

P.S.  My brilliant friend Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious has a slightly different but equally awesome take
on the day, plus much better pictures - http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/dutch-baby-oven-pancake-with-blueberries-and-blood-oranges/http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/dutch-baby-oven-pancake-with-blueberries-and-blood-oranges/

Blueberry Dutch Baby Pancake
2 Tbsp. butter or Earth Balance
2 eggs (thanks Cynthia)
1/2 cup flour (unbleached, all-purpose)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. blood orange zest
pinch of sea salt
fresh blueberries
blood orange wedges
powdered sugar

- Put the butter in a cast-iron or other heavy, ovenproof skillet and put in a 375 degree oven.
- Whisk the flour, eggs, milk, sea salt, and blood orange zest in a bowl until nice and smooth, then toss in some blueberries..
- Carefully remove the pan with the melted butter from the oven, pour in the batter, and swirl it around to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the pancake has puffed up the sides of the pan and is lightly golden around the edges and crevices.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar, top with extra blueberries, and drizzle with the blood orange wedges.

It's January 28 and I'm celebrating one of my favorite holidays - National Blueberry Pancake Day.  I'd like to eat a stack of pancakes filled with blueberries and topped with real maple syrup every day, but I don't.  I have probably eaten thousands over the years, from those first, fantastic, steaming cakes filled with just picked blueberries at Lake View Lodge in Paw, Paw, Michigan, to the short stack at the Coffee Company I thoroughly enjoyed recently.

This year I decided to honor this special day by mixing it up a little and trying a recipe that I've eaten but never made before.  For some reason I thought the Dutch Baby Pancake, which is baked in the oven, could only be made by professionals.  I was always in awe of the Yorkshire pudding-like puffiness that the pancake rose to, in the melted butter covered cast iron skillet.  Covered in a snowy blanket of powdered sugar, then finished off with a squeeze or two of fresh lemon, I thought this is what you order at a restaurant, not what you make at home.  I was wrong.

I adapted a simple recipe I found online, filled it with fresh blueberries and blood orange zest, and seriously I almost jumped for joy when it came out perfect from my very own oven.  A sprinkle of that snowy sugar and a few squeezes of blood orange juice and I was in National Blueberry Pancake Day heaven.  I can believe I ate the whole thing!

(Thanks to The Betty Crocker Cookbook via www.completelydelicious.com for the basic recipe.

Thanks to Melissa's Produce Company for the gorgeous, awesomely colored and flavored blood oranges.
Thanks Driscolls for the star of the show - the pleasingly plump blueberries.)

P.S.  My brilliant friend Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious has a slightly different but equally awesome take
on the day, plus much better pictures - http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/dutch-baby-oven-pancake-with-blueberries-and-blood-oranges/http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/dutch-baby-oven-pancake-with-blueberries-and-blood-oranges/

Blueberry Dutch Baby Pancake
2 Tbsp. butter or Earth Balance
2 eggs (thanks Cynthia)
1/2 cup flour (unbleached, all-purpose)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. blood orange zest
pinch of sea salt
fresh blueberries
blood orange wedges
powdered sugar

- Put the butter in a cast-iron or other heavy, ovenproof skillet and put in a 375 degree oven.
- Whisk the flour, eggs, milk, sea salt, and blood orange zest in a bowl until nice and smooth, then toss in some blueberries..
- Carefully remove the pan with the melted butter from the oven, pour in the batter, and swirl it around to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the pancake has puffed up the sides of the pan and is lightly golden around the edges and crevices.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar, top with extra blueberries, and drizzle with the blood orange wedges.