Dutch Baby, or as my daughter like to call it “Giant Pancake” happens to be her favourite breakfast and I think hers is a pretty accurate description. We don’t make it often and when we do, it’s only on weekends, so it has become a sort of Saturday or Sunday delight, depending on when we have more time to laze around the house in the morning.

Since cherry season is at its peak and we are lucky enough to have four different types of cherry trees growing in the backyard of our small family vacation home, we found ourselves with quite a lot of cherries on hand. Well, it was Saturday, we definitely had all the time in the world, so I decided to make a Dutch Baby and spike it with cherries. I used cherries in the batter and I also made a quick cherry and maple syrup sauce on the stovetop just because I think you can never have enough cherries on your plate.

The recipe is very easy to put together, but it does take about 30 minutes to bake, so if you know your table companions to be ravenous in the morning, you’ll need to plan for it a little. And by the way, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a breakfast affair, you can make this Dutch Baby to serve as a quick and delicious dessert. Also, you can omit making the Cherry & Maple Syrup Sauce if you don’t feel like it and just sprinkle some powdered sugar over the giant pancake before serving.

Cherry Dutch Baby w Cherry & Maple Syrup Sauce

500g/1 lb. cherries, pitted and pulled apart in half

60g/4 Tbsp unsalted butter

125ml/½ cup full-fat milk

3 eggs

60g/½ cup flour

1 Tbsp sugar

Seeds scraped from one vanilla pod, reserve pod

Two Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 210C/425F.

Place milk, eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla seeds in a blender and process well.

Once oven is heated, place butter in an oven-proof dish (a cast-iron skillet works best) and allow it to melt and become foamy for about 3 minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn. Remove dish from oven, pour the processed batter and dot with half of the cherries, making sure to leave a 2.5cm/1 in. border all around the edges. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the remaining cherries along with the 2 Tbsp maple syrup and vanilla pod in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, discard the vanilla pods and transfer sauce to a serving dish.

Once the 20 minutes have passed, lower heat to 150C/300F and bake the Dutch Baby for another 5 minutes until pancake is golden and all puffed up. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving along with the Cherry Sauce.