Olallieberry Dutch Baby

Unless you live on the Western side of the United States, odds are you haven't heard of olallieberries. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'll see a photo that I took in my own backyard-- and that was **ahem** stolen copied (without my permission). Side note: if anyone knows how to rectify that situation, please let me know. I've had no luck getting the photo removed, or at last watermarked by me.)

My husband loves Olallieberries so much, that we bought an olallieberry plant a few years ago.  Craig has lovingly nurtured that plant, until it has grown into a large bush. This year, the bush gave him lots and lots of olallieberries!

To me, olallieberries  taste like a cross between a blackberry, with a bit of tartness from a boysenberry, with a hint of raspberry.  Their season is very short-- starting around June 1st and lasting only a few weeks.

Every year, I make at least one dozen pints of Olallieberry jam, which my husband enjoys all year round. I also bake him, at least, one Olallieberry Pie.  This makes him a very happy husband, and he deserves it.

Last weekend, I had an idea.  Why not use my recipe for an Apple Dutch Baby, but substitute olallieberries instead?  Since many of you won't be able to find these berries, as they only seem to grow in the Western side of the United States (I don't know why) -- use any berry of your own choosing, to make this recipe. If you've never had a Dutch Baby, think of this as baked pancake.  These are so simple and quick to make-- no fancy ingredients needed: flour, sugar, milk, egg, vanilla.  You need an oven proof-pan, 5 minutes to make the batter and 15 minutes of baking.

Since our Olallieberry bush wasn't quite ready to present ripe berries to us, I thawed the last of the frozen ones (from last year) and macerated them with a little sugar-- only because when I tasted the berries, they made me pucker just a bit. I used only a generous tablespoon of sugar, and let the berries macerate for a few minutes.

The batter is so simple to make-- add milk to flour and sugar, whisk in eggs and add a bit of vanilla.

I melted one tablespoon of butter, tossed in the macerated berries... 

 

 ...then poured in the batter, and popped the whole thing into a preheated 450F degree oven.

Fifteen minutes later, out came this puffy, golden pancake! (The pancake will deflate very quickly)

I like to squeeze a little lemon juice on top, and dust it with powdered sugar.  

TASTING NOTES:  The pancakes has notes of custard, with a hint of vanilla.  We like the fresh lemon juice, too.  This is a Summer Berry pancake that yields about four slices.  I'm not gonna lie-- this fed three of us, with three large slices! I have a feeling I'll be making these quite often, because these are so delicious.  My son's face lights up when I make Dutch Babies.  The best part is that these are so simple to make. 

This Tuesday, I check into the hospital very early in the morning, for a few days.  My worn out left knee is going to be replaced by the marvels of modern medicine.  Thank you, to all of you who have left comments of encouragement to me.  It has been too many years that I have lived with the inability to walk down a set of stairs, or steep hills, without pain.  A few people have shared horror stories, but the majority of people I've talked pretty much say the same thing-- I will wonder what took me so long to make this decision, and that I will feel so much better.

I have six weeks to convalesce, and I hope that I will use that time to catch up on sharing more recipes and visiting the many food blogs that inspire me. Having an eleven-month job is something I have grown to appreciate.  I'm so ready to rest and relax-- and to focus on my physical therapy. As soon as the surgeon says my incision is healed, I'm going to be at our neighborhood lap pool doing my exercises. I can't wait!

As always, a printable recipe card is at the end of this post. 

Cheers,