Popeye Pancakes

A friend of mine called last night and mentioned that she had made "Dutch Babies", or "German Pancakes" in her flower mold and that they came out so beautiful.  I grew up calling these babies Popeye Pancakes, and we enjoy them frequently in our household.  Whatever you call them, they're delicious and oh so easy!  After talking with her I decided I needed to make them for breakfast this morning, and it was like being a kid again and seeing them rise up in the oven for the first time.  Even my son was excited about the new shape and we bonded over the oohh'ing and aahh'ing.

 You don't want to cut the pancake while it's in the mold (unless you're careful and use a nylon spatula), so I just transferred mine onto a plate by peeling back the mold and sliding the pancake out.

 With the flower mold you can cut it into fourths and come out with 4 heart shapes.  This one reminds me of cute dog ears.  Valentine's breakfast is in the bag this year!




Here's the recipe:

6 eggs
1 Cup milk
1 Cup flour
some salt (I don't know - a 1/2 tsp?)

Mix using a wire whisk.  It will still be a little lumpy and maybe a little foamy - that's all good.  Typically I put my pan in the oven with a stick of butter (sometimes I try to be good and use only 1/2 a stick), and I let the butter melt while I'm preheating my oven.  You don't want to put your Demarle flexipans in the oven while it's preheating (not sure why - they just say don't do it), so I put about 2-3 Tbsp. of butter in the mold and stuck it in the microwave to melt the butter.  I'm not sure what duty the butter performs in the regular recipe, whether it's for sticking purposes (which it does quite terribly even with a whole stick of butter), or for taste purposes, but I decided that although I wasn't worried about sticking, I wanted the yum-yummy buttery taste, and that's why I still used 2-3 Tbsp.  That was probably more than I needed.  Anyway - once your butter (or not, if you choose to not use it) is melted, pour the batter into the mold and stick it in the oven.  Make sure your mold is on the perforated baking sheet before you pour, of course.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Serve with powdered sugar, syrup, jam, whipped cream, fruit - whatever you want!  We always use agave nectar.

This is one of my recipes that I have to let the pan soak for 3 days before I have the motivation to scrub it.  Guess what - my Demarle flower mold came out almost as clean as it started and washing it was a cinch!  One more reason to love my popeye pancakes!  Thanks Karen for the brilliant idea to make these using Demarle!

Update: I made popeye pancakes in my Fluted Square Mold.  I think I prefer the look of the Flower Mold the best, but these turned out pretty as well.