German Apple Pancake

ALSO KNOWN AS a Dutch baby, a German pancake features a giant puffed rim that makes for a festive presentation—and it comes together in a flash. It’s traditionally made by pouring a thin, eggy batter into a hot skillet and baking it; the heat from the skillet and oven convert moisture in the batter to steam, which causes the pancake to balloon dramatically (and then fall). The end result, like Yorkshire pudding or popovers, features a creamy, custardy center surrounded by a crispy browned lip. Classic versions include apples baked right in.

I started with a batter of flour, milk, eggs, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla, which I stirred together by hand. Pancakes from early tests with raw or only lightly cooked apples baked up too wet, and bites of crunchy apples were jarring against the soft-textured pancake, so I began by cooking down apples until they had softened and some of their moisture had evaporated. My tasters liked tart Granny Smith apples, which provided an excellent foil for the rich pancake. To coax out extra complexity, I added butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to the skillet and cooked the apples until they began to brown and their juices reduced to a caramel-like glaze.

I poured the batter around the apples, put the skillet in a 425-degree oven, and held my breath. Every