Dutch Baby.

Helloooooo. I've come to a revelatory conclusion; the conclusion that you can make eating anything, at any time of day, feel appropriate just with a name change and a little twiddle. You want cake for breakfast? Call it coffee cake. You feel like crisps before dinner? Ok, just put them in a bowl and call them nibbles. You want bread for your dessert do you? Well mix in some sugar and eggs and bake a pudding. See, whatever you want, whenever you want it...I can sort it for you.

This treat is a case in point. Basically, you see, it is what us Brits would call a Yorkshire Pudding; plain old batter, cooked in hot fat until puffy and light.

The thing is though, what clever Americans have done is think of a cutey name for it, sploshed in a bit of vanilla and there you have it....Dutch Baby....ooooor Yorkshire Pudding for breakfast.

Present Dutch Baby with a spot of lovely syrup or fruit compote, doused in icing sugar and people will applaud you. Say you’re having a breakfast Yorkshire Pudding (not as crazycrackers as it sounds, I promise, ask Nigella who has it with cream and golden syrup) and they’ll turn their noses up. So go forth and eat weirldly...make this for breakfast and thank out chums across the pond who have a food solution to every problem. With Love and Cake.

Dutch Baby.

A few notes:

• If you have a fav yorkshire pudding recipe, you could just as easily use that...though I would still use butter in the pan instead of oil to avoid your breakfast having a 'roast' air about it.
• As with many of my breakfast recipes, I just use a coffee mug to measure, just because grams feel like overkill in the morning.
• Serve with the same things you would with pancakes...I made a compote out of blackcurrants; boiling 150g of them for a few minutes with 2 tbsp of sugar, but syrup, jam or also fresh fruit seem appropriate too.

Serves 2-3

You will need

1x20cm frying pan or roasting dish

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup strong white bread flour

a splash of vanilla extract

pinch salt

a good knob of butter

• Right...let's go. Pop your frying pan or roasting dish into the oven and turn the heat on to as high as it goes.
• While that's heating up, beat everything except the butter into a nice big bowl so you have a smooth batter.
• When the oven's up to temperature, turn it down to 220°c.
• Take out the frying pan, and pop in the butter. As it melts swirl it around the frying pan so it's nice and covered.
• Pour in the batter and get it straight bake in the oven. DO NOT TOUCH THE HOT HANDLE....YOUR HAND WILL NOT LIKE IT....been there, done that.
• Cook for 20 minutes until it's puffed up and golden.
• Sprinkle lots and lots of icing sugar over the top and eat while hot and buttery.