Author Notes: My aunt adapted a pancake she ate at New York City’s Reuben’s in the 1950’s and came up with this divine recipe. My brother, cousins and I have been making it ever since. I like to serve it for brunch with nothing but a slice of fresh lemon to squeeze over or for dessert accompanied by whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. —Gail Monaghan
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
-
1/2
cup flour
-
1/8
teaspoon salt
-
3
eggs
-
1/2
cup milk
-
1
teaspoon vanilla extract
-
1
Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch wedges
-
1/4
cup raisins
-
1/2
teaspoon ground cinnamon
-
8-10
tablespoons sugar
-
5-6
tablespoons unsalted butter
-
1
lemon for squeezing juice onto the finished pancake
Directions
- Sift the flour with the salt.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk and vanilla extract. Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Do not over-mix. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, toss the apple slices together with the raisins, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Set Aside.
- In an 8-10-inch non-stick skillet set over medium high heat, melt two tablespoons of the butter. Cut the rest of the butter into 1/2-inch pats.
- When the butter is melted and sizzling, stir in the raisin-apple mixture and cook, stirring often, until the apples have begun to soften, about 8 minutes. Turn the heat to high and cook, stirring constantly until the apples are dark and caramelized.
- Reduce the heat back to medium-high and add another tablespoon of butter to the pan. Stir until the butter melts and then pour the batter evenly over the apples to cover them completely.
- Repeat this process two more times (inverting the pancake onto a dinner plate, putting 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons sugar in the pan, cooking until brown)—once on each side.
- At this point the pancake should be done–very dark and very caramelized, almost black in spots. If it is not done, cook on each side a bit more.
- Divide the pancake into portions in the pan and use a spatula to transfer the portions to individual plates.
- Serve each portion with a wedge of lemon to squeeze over and an optional pitcher of cream, unsweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Photo by jessicabrown.me