Blueberry Season Pancakes

July is not only lily season, it's also blueberry season here in Northern California. 

When we lived in Berkeley we used to come up in July and buy a flat of freshly picked blueberries out at the blueberry farm near Forestville. Now we buy our blueberries from the farm stand on Hwy 12 coming into Sebastopol. They aren't huge ones, like the organic ones you can buy near where High School Rd comes into Occidental Rd., but the small ones are more useful for baking, in my opinion, and they have plenty of flavor, too.

Today we had some neighbors over for breakfast and I made German Pancakes, also known as Dutch Babies, with blueberries added because I like my blueberries cooked better than raw. I also served a fruit mixture of mixed berries with the baked pancake. I used a recipe from the blog Tastes Better From Scratch and it's a winner! Called German Pancakes, it uses very basic pantry items and six egg and 1 cup milk. I like that it's baked in a 9 x 13-inch pan instead of a round shape. Makes it easy to serve since you just run a knife down the center (long side) and twice across the short side to make six rectangles.

This makes a eggy, delicious, delicate pancake with a dramatic puff in the oven, which sinks down after it comes out of the oven (which makes it easier to serve!), but it isn't very sweet and has no leaveners, so you can make the batter up ahead of time, ready to pour over the hot, melted butter in the pan. The oven really, really needs to be fully preheated when you do put the pan back in. Otherwise, you won't get that puff.

Traditional accompaniments are maple syrup, lemon juice and powder sugar, fruit either fresh or jam.

German Pancakes with Blueberries

Serves 5-6

5 tablespoons butter (or non-dairy margarine or 'butter')
6 large eggs
1 cup milk (or nut milk)
1 cup all-purpose flour
dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few drops lemon oil (optional)
1 cup fresh blueberries, washed and drained and picked over for stems or over-ripe berries
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

As oven preheats, put the butter in an ungreased 9x13-inch baking pan and place in the oven, just until the butter is melted. (Mine started to brown slightly at the edges)

Place the eggs, milk, flour, salt and vanilla, (and lemon oil, if using) in a blender and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides, if needed, and process again for a few seconds.

Pour the batter into the hot baking pan, over the melted butter. Sprinkle with the blueberries and with the sugar (if using).

Bake, for 20-27 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Pancake will puff up, but will sink down again as it cools once removed from the oven.

Serve at once. Can sprinkle with powdered sugar, with lemon juice, or serve with maple syrup and/or more berries.

Note: you can make this without berries, too, and it will still puff up gloriously and taste wonderful.