If a crepe and a quiche had a baby...

My wonderful aunt got me an absolutely fabulous Christmas present this year-- a couple magazine subscriptions, including Simple & Delicious.  NAILED IT!  The recipes are all simple, quick, and no doubt delicious.  When I was flipping through and found a recipe for a puff pancake, I decided that I needed a fancy breakfast for myself.  I had some old candy bars and a ton of super-ripe melon that I wanted to use up, so I opted to use them instead of berries as the recipe instructed.
I was also interested to see how it would turn out.  It was different from any other pancake recipe I've seen.  You make it in a pie pan and bake it, for one.  Also, it has 3 times the sugar and 1/3 the flour of the pancake recipe I normally use.  From reading BakeWise, by Shirley O. Corriher (more on this book in a later blog), I recognized a couple things: the first was steam leavening.  There isn't anything in this recipe that will cause the "puff" other than steam (no baking powder, etc.).  Also, the amount of sugar probably affects the texture.  I can't be sure on that without tweaking the recipe, but I'm reluctant to try that.

Puff Pancakes
1 Tbsp butter
3 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/3 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
3 chopped Yogurette bars (or some other chocolate/yogurt candy)
1 C chopped honeyrock/ cantaloupe


Preheat your oven to 400˚F.  Place the butter in a pie plate and put in the oven to heat up.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, salt, and sugar.  Briefly (so it doesn't cool too much) pull out the pie plate, and tilt/swirl so the butter coats the entire surface.  Pour in the batter, and replace in the oven for 10-12 minutes to bake.  While it's baking, sprinkle the melon with a bit of powdered sugar.  The sides should puff up and become slightly brown.  Immediately put the chocolate on the pancake so that it will melt.  Top with the melon, and serve hot and fresh.

Yummy!  The texture, as I suggested in the title, is a lot like a cross between and crepe and a quiche.  This made me think that it would also be delightful with savory components.  I tried this, actually, using cheese, bacon, and bell peppers, and it was so yummy.  My fiancé thought so, too.  Sadly, I have no photo for this.  But the point I'm trying to make is that it is deliciously versatile; you can put any number of toppings on this.
It really does need to be served right away, not just kept warm.  I wanted my chocolate to melt, so I took out the pancake, and put it back almost right away.  It still deflated.  That said, the puff-look is the only thing affected.  It actually keeps well in the fridge, so if you have any left over (you know, if you don't eat the whole thing yourself, or share it with people), you can enjoy it the next day.