Bridal Shower Bites - Aunt Carol's Panakakua

Mom and Dad were up to visit recently - we had a lot of fun going to see the Boston Commonwealth Shakespeare Company perform Two Gentlemen of Verona in the Boston Commons! I was eager to invite them over for brunch, partly to show off all our new china and partly to make this for them: Aunt Carol's Panakakua (Finnish Pancake).

I've never heard of a Finnish Pancake before, though I have heard of Dutch pancakes and German pancakes. And Icelandish pancakes - though we didn't try any when we were there, we heard that Iceland is famous for its pancakes, and even heard of one restaurant that served cucumber and chocolate pancakes. Yes, that's right, cucumbers and chocolate. Together. In a pancake.

Anyway, looking over the recipe Aunt Carol sent reminded me a lot of my popover recipe - an eggy, milky batter that gets its rise from the beaten eggs, and cooks up into a puffy, custard-y type of thing. I wasn't sure what to serve it with - the batter itself is neither sweet nor savory, and it seems like you could really go either way with it. We had some delicious fresh blueberries in our farmbox that week, so I figured I'd go sweet with it and top the pancake with fresh fruit and/or cinnamon sugar. It comes together really quickly, which is nice when you're making brunch, but needs to be timed well to impress your guests as much as possible with the puffiness when you take it out of the oven. That part is a little trickier, but luckily my husband and parents constantly pretend to be impressed with me.

No time to take a picture in process! Here's the empty bowl.

 The pancake pulls together really quickly, and puffs up really nicely in the oven. It deflates as it cools, though, and is already starting to deflate in these pictures. The center becomes really custard-y while the edges retain some of their crispness, and overall the whole thing would be well served with some sugar, fruit, whipped cream, or all three.  I know I keep pushing the sweet options, but I think it could work equally well with the savory ones - maybe some cheese or something. I'm not the girl to talk about breakfast meats with, but I've heard that bacon goes well with pretty much everything. Besides the blueberries and cinnamon sugar, I served it with a zucchini, corn, and feta frittata and followed it up with some homemade coffee ice cream (I am my father's daughter, after all). Yum!

Yum!

Aunt Carol's Panakakua (Finnish pancake)
serves four

2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in an 8x12 pan. In large bowl, beat the eggs, then add milk and flour alternately. Add the salt. Pour the melted butter into the batter and stir in. Pour back into the hot pan. Bake approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Yum!