Oh, Baby!

I think it's high time I move on to try some new things and stop feeding my A Homemade Life addiction/obsession, so here is the last post on that for a while.
One of my other favorite restaurants is the Original Pancake House (OPH). They had it in Denver, where I grew up, and there is one here in Salt Lake. I have had so many delicious things there: their fresh fruit filled crepes are to die for. Last time I had those was one of those experiences where you are reaching dangerously full levels, but you keep eating and eating and eating and are so devastated that you can't finish because you are about to explode. But the thing OPH is famous for is their Dutch Baby. And, truth be told, I've never had it. But it is my mom's favorite, and Sam loves it as well. So, imagine my joy when I discovered a recipe for Dutch Babies in A Homemade Life! I told my mom, and she was positively thrilled at the prospect of having a Dutch Baby for dinner some night.
The Dutch Baby is surprisingly easy to make. More eggs than you can shake a stick at, half and half, flour, and salt are tossed into a blender, than poured into a hot and buttery dish. They bake in the oven and come out glorious, billowing towers of eggy-pancakey Dutch deliciousness. Devouring them with copious amounts of fresh lemon and sugar are required.
I didn't know just how HUGE the Dutch babies would get. When I went to check on the first batch (I made four), they were just finishing the minimum suggested cooking time, and they were burning on the top of the oven-- yes, they were on a lower rack and they had billowed up to reach the top burners of the oven. I yelled out, "WE HAVE A DUTCH BABY EMERGENCY!" And my sister Lindsay quickly came to my side. We removed them promptly, and I kept my eyes on the second batch from the get-go.

The second batch:

They truly are beautiful as you see them full and tall and steamy in the oven, and then watch them collapse the moment they leave their fiery incubator. There were five adults and two kids, and four dutch babies were more than enough.

So, here is Molly Wizenberg's Dutch Baby recipe from A Homemade Life:

2 T butter
4 large eggs
1/2 c flour
1/2 c half and half
1/4 t salt

lemon juice and sugar

Put butter in a single, deep 8 inch skillet, or in a 9- or 10- inch pyrex cake pan or pie plate (I used a pie plate). Put butter in the pan and put it in a preheated oven (425 degrees). Remove pan when the butter is melty and brush it all around the pan and up the sides. In the meantime, blend eggs, flour, half and half, and salt. Pour batter into the warm pan and bake from 18 - 25 minutes. When the baby emerges from the oven, immediately shower it in lemon juice and sugar (powdered or granulated). Serve immediately.