Grain-Free (or not) Apple Cinnamon Dutch Baby Pancake

This morning I was stumped for what to make for breakfast. We didn’t have enough eggs for our usual scrambled eggs, smoothies didn’t sound great, I had no soaked oats, and not enough in my grain-free flour stash to make these coconut flour pancakes.

Someone on facebook mentioned a Dutch Baby pancake, which I knew I had the ingredients to make. With just over 1/2 cup of almond meal left I had to use a couple of tablespoons of arrowroot to make up the volume difference. I think that little bit of starch in a high-protein batter made all of the difference in flavor and texture.

You could cook the apple into the batter but I am always trying to keep enzymes in our meal, as evidenced by my winter cookbook, so I just dice the apple up while the pancake bakes.

This not-too-sweet oven pancake whips up in fifteen minutes from start to finish and the dense, slightly custard texture is so good contrasted with the crunchy apple and creamy yogurt. And I’m thinking sausage or bacon alongside is a must the next time I have some on hand.

I know what I’m making next time I’m stumped for a breakfast idea. I just need to restock my almond meal first.

Grain-Free (or not) Apple Cinnamon Dutch Baby Pancake

serves 3

Recipe Notes: If you’re not into baking grain-free then simply substitute wheat flour for the almond meal + arrowroot: 3/4 cup in total. With the high-egg content a gluten-free or sprouted flour should also work splendidly. This makes a fairly thin dutch baby, which I kind of like, but you could up the batter content using 4 eggs, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup flour or use a 10" cast-iron skillet instead.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons almond meal
  • 2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + extra for serving
  • generous pinch of nutmeg
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter or ghee
  • 1 apple for serving
  • plain yogurt for serving

Directions

  1. Place a 12" cast-iron skillet in your oven and preheat to 475 degrees.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl whisk eggs. Whisk in milk and then flours, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt until completely combined.
  3. Once the oven is preheated carefully remove the skillet from the oven and immediately place butter in skillet. Rotate skillet and allow butter to melt all over and coat skillet. As soon as butter is melted pour in batter, swirl to evenly distribute, and place back in preheated oven.
  4. Bake for 10 minutes or until the pancake is puffed up in the middle and golden brown all the way around. Meanwhile, chop apple into bite-sized pieces.
  5. Remove from oven, cut into 3-4 slices and serve topped with diced apple, a dollop of plain whole milk yogurt, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a drizzle of honey if desired. Enjoy!

What are you making for breakfast these days?

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25 Comments

  1. Wow, that sounds so easy and delicious! It would be something quick to make for breakfast before school, too. Thanks for the recipe!

  2. Yum! I grew up making these – we called them “Pannekoeken”, after the restaurant chain. Except my recipe mentions using a pie tin and 1/4 c. of butter. I love the browned sides on it but it always seemed the recipe needed tweaking. I’ll have to try your recipe next time I have fresh eggs in the house! (I have a child with egg allergies so we rarely use eggs around here 🙁 ) Thanks!

  3. This looks great – I get tired easily of the scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast. Can I just use all almond flour if I don’t have arrowroot powder? I know you said the powder added to the flavor but I don’t have any on hand…

    1. Karyn- I believe that would be fine. It might taste a little different, but I doubt it would be so much as to be inedible :).

  4. Mmm… we make these fairly often in the autumn/winter. Such a nice way to break the oatmeal/eggs cycle. 😉 I think I’ll give the grain-free option a try – I’ve used coconut flour before, but it wasn’t quite right in the texture (tasted great, just didn’t look right).

    1. Meg – I’ve had that same experience and can never get coconut flour to work in a dutch baby… which is why I started using almond flour.

  5. This sounds wonderful. We love German Pancakes, but haven’t tried them with almond flour. I might make this for my husband tomorrow. He’s avoiding grains right now and I bet this would make his day!

  6. I am so excited to make this. I am the one in my family that is trying to stay away from gluten.

  7. This looks delicious! My daughter has an egg sensitivity and it probably wouldn’t work to use egg replacer in this recipe I wouldn’t think. Too bad! We will have to make it when she’s not home!

  8. Hi! This looks wonderful! We’ve just started the GAPS intro diet, so it won’t be on the menu for a while.

    When we get to the point of having introduced the required ingredients (minus the arrowroot powder & milk), I was wondering about substituting the milk for thinned yogurt…do you think this would work? I’ve never made an oven pancake before so I have no idea!

    Thanks!

  9. I was going to ask if we could use coconut flour…instead I’m gonna ask how much we should use to replace the almond meal in this recipe? Sounds yummy, can’t wait to try it!

    1. Billie – I’ve tried coconut flour in a dutch baby before and it doesn’t quite work out the same. But, if you’re still interested, I would use maybe 1/3 cup of coconut flour or sub out 1/4 cup of the almond meal for coconut flour.

  10. We had this for breakfast this morning with blueberries and stawberries since that’s what we had on hand. It was delicious. Love the fact that it’s grain free so doesn’t require any beforehand preparation.

  11. hi there – if I don’t have a cast iron skillet, could you recommend other ways of cooking this?

    Thanks!

  12. Can you tell me what kind of alond flour you buy? Or do you make your own?
    Thanks!

  13. Hi. I have made this twice this week and I love the flavor. But mine ends up looking like a cake. Almost like a skillet cornbread. Yours looks so silky smooth. Do you have any ideas why mine isn’t looking like a dutch baby? Maybe the brand of almond flour? I really want this to work! 🙂

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