Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp butter
• ½ tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400℉. Place butter in a 9"x13" pan, then place that pan into the oven until the butter is fully melted (this may be done while the oven is preheating). While the butter is melting, in a bowl, beat eggs until combined. Add flour, milk, and salt. Beat until smooth. Take the pan of molten butter out of the oven and immediately pour batter into the hot and molten butter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until puffed and well browned. Top with your preferred combination from among butter, jam, lemon curd, honey, maple syrup, fresh berries, or whipped cream.

About

This recipe was a staple breakfast-for-dinner in our household growing up. In a cookbook compiled as part of a family reunion (not pictured here), my mother gave this as an explanation for the recipe:

“[My husband] and I stayed at a fancy Bed and Breakfast for our anniversary last year. In the morning they served us this beautiful gourmet breakfast that was oh, so delicious. It was a bread-like pastry topped with fresh fruit and whipping cream. I was raving to [my sister] about how delicious it was and she said, ‘Oh, that sounds like German Pancakes. My family loves them, and they are so easy.’ So I got the recipe and now it is now one of our family’s staples.”

The “last year” is unlikely since german pancakes were commonplace in our household more than a decade prior to the family reunion that produced that cookbook, but that aside, the rest of the etiology is believable enough.

On 2023-12-24, I took this image of the index card the recipe was written upon, as well as its entry in another cookbook compiled by my mother’s siblings: