Blueberry Compote on a Gluten Free Dutch Baby

Well, the challenge is now finished. This was the last week of the RSBC Challenge 2009. This was such a party! Exercise, good food, interesting challenges - I enjoyed the dregs of February much more this year because I had something to focus on besides the endless winter, full of bare trees and frozen windshields, drab soup, and dreary work, day after day. So far, I have worked with Lime Avocado Mousse, a reminder of spring; Crispy Mediterranean Polenta: with kale, tomatoes, and feta, warm and welcoming and full of dark green kale; and Turnip Souffle, which will be a fitting appetizer for some future fancy dinner.

This week's challenge, besides finishing my running/walking, was blueberries for breakfast. For some reason, this one stumped me the most. It took me the longest to figure out what I was making, and it wasn't until tonight that I settled on it. I thought about muffins, but the boy much prefers my Almond Poppy Seed Muffins (gluten free) to anything with berries in it. Tonight, what I really wanted for dinner was a Dutch baby, a Pacific Northwest tradition.

The first time I had Dutch baby, a large eggy pancake sprinkled with powdered sugar and dribbled with fresh lemon, I was staying at a friend's house, and Sunday morning woke me with this delicious smell. It was so wonderful - like coming home.

Now, a gluten free Dutch baby sounds like a challenge. Although it involves lots of eggs, there's flour in it too. And that upside-down mushroom cap shape seems like something only gluten could produce. My first attempt was noble, but the recipe could still use some work. What I pulled out of the oven looked more like a layer cake than a Dutch baby. Oh well, I guess, because gluten free baking usually requires more than one try. And I will attempt this again, another time.

Also part of this experiment was blueberry compote. I wanted it simple and flavorful. I assumed it would be just like cranberry sauce, and after minutes of simmering, the berries would pop, releasing the necessary pectin to thicken the brew. Blueberries didn't quite produce the same pectin magic. I ended up tossing in some cornstarch slurry. Maybe I just didn't wait long enough.



Gluten Free Dutch Baby with Blueberry Compote

Dutch baby attempt:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup gluten free pancake mix (I used BCG pancake mix)
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Take 2 Tbsp butter and put it into a 10 inch oven-proof skillet. Place skillet and put into preheating oven.

Combine ingredients in a blender for 20 seconds or until well combined. When oven reaches temperature, remove the skillet and pour batter into skillet. Bake 17-20 minutes until top is puffed and golden brown.

Blueberry Compote:
1 cup wild blueberries
zest and juice of one orange
1 teaspoon cornstarch with 1 teaspoon water, if needed for thickness

Place blueberries in a small saucepan with orange zest. Squeeze juice of orange over to the top. Simmer until the mixture thickens. Add a tablespoon of honey if needed. If it still doesn't thicken, add cornstarch and water.

Here's what I think I'll try the next time:
Less flour.
More milk. (I don't think I ended up adding in all the needed milk, because my food processor was filled to the brim.)
A pan with curved edges, rather than the cake round that I used.
Cast iron or Pyrex.
More of a souffle method, that involves separating the eggs, beating the egg whites until stiff, and then folding them into the rest of the batter.

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I also completed the running portion of the challenge this week - 26.2 miles! Interesting that I had to do 5 miles in the park today...