Dutch Apple Oven Pancake

How would you like to wake up to this beauty as your breakfast? I sure would, and my husband certainly appreciated it. And then continued to appreciate it for breakfast for the next few days since this is like a pancake on steroids and can definitely feed a crowd. Serve this at your next brunch and you will have very happy guests and lots of wow factor. The best part of the pancake is that you don't have to sit over a griddle all morning, you just pop it in the oven and let the oven do all the work. I think the best pan to use here is a cast iron pan but since I actually don't own one of those yet (shocking, I know) I just used an oven proof, teflon coated 10 inch skillet and it worked out great. Of course, apples and cinnamon are an old married couple and just make the pancake taste like a great big buttery apple pie. I served it topped with lots of powdered sugar and whip cream and my husband kept saying how he felt like he was eating something at a fair. Since I'm a big fan of all fair "cuisine" (churros, funnel cakes etc), I'll take that as a compliment!

4 eggs

1/2 cup flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 pinch salt

2 Tbl sugar

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbl butter melted

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup (half a stick) of butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbl cinnamon

2 green apples, cored, peeled, and sliced thin

powdered sugar

maple syrup

whip cream

Preheat oven to 450. Whisk the eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together and slowly add milk while mixing. Add vanilla, cinnamon and melted butter and mix. Let the batter rest for about 20 minutes or up to 2 days. Stir together sugar and cinnamon. In an oven proof skillet (cast iron is the best) heat 1/4 cup of the butter on the stove swirling the pan so the butter coats it all. Add half of the cinnamon sugar and lay the apples around the pan and sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar on top of the apples.Let the mixture bubble and then pour the batter on top and put in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 450 and then lower to 375 and bake another 20 minutes until the pancake is cooked through. It will puff up in the oven and the apples should rise to the top. Serve with confectioners sugar, whip cream and maple syrup.