Austria, Austria, Yum, Yum, Yum!

Sunday #1 takes me to the country of Austria.  It all began the Saturday before as I set myself the task of finding a pancake recipe for the next day.  While searching I decided I should go in alphabetical order, which leads me to Austria.

Now you would think that having been to Austria, not once, but twice, I would have already tried Austrian pancakes while visiting the country.  It would have made sense if I had, but alas I didn't.  It was probably because I was too busy eating all of the yummy pastries in Austria.  I basically ate pastry the entire time I was there; and when I did eat a meal, it always included a couple of pastries with it.  Anyway, I got my first taste of Austrian pancakes right here in the U.S., and boy were they yummy!

Now on to the recipe and the pictures.  We'll start with the recipe.  I found it on allrecipes.com, and we have to thank Dardoubert for the tasty introduction to the Austrian pancake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons margarine

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar. Pour in milk, eggs and cream, and whisk into a smooth batter. Meanwhile, melt margarine in a cast iron skillet.  We used an 8 inch diameter cast iron skillet.  It worked, but a slightly larger one probably would have been better.  If you use an 8 inch diameter, you need to let the pancake cook for an additional 5-8 minutes.
3. Pour the batter over the melted margarine.
4. Place the skillet in the oven, and bake for 35 minutes (40-43 minutes if using a smaller cast iron skillet). The pancake will rise to form a bubble in the middle. If you are using a smaller cast iron skillet, the pancake will not form a bubble in the middle, but instead will bubble more uniformly across the entire pancake.  Remove from the oven, and let cool until the pancake sets, or goes down.

Now on to the photos.  Sorry, I didn't take any photos of what the batter looks like before I poured it into the skillet, but unlike what we are used to here in America, the batter should be completely lump free and very liquidy.  There is plenty of liquid in this recipe, and it doesn't take long to get all of the lumps out with the whisk.  

 Here's the first picture after I poured the batter into the skillet with the melted butter already in it:

After I took it out of the oven, this is what it looked like:

After a few minutes, it deflated and looked like this:

Finally I cut into it, and this next picture shows the inside.  This is a very custardy type of pancake.

Now it's time to add some toppings.  The recipe called for pouring maple syrup over the top, but I opted for something slightly different.  First, since it's the beginning of strawberry season, I thought some fresh chopped strawberries would taste fantastic with this custard like pancake.  Then I thought I'd try to pour some reduced balsamic vinegar over the top of the strawberries and pancakes.  If you don't know how to reduce balsamic vinegar, here is a link to a video that shows you how:  Balsamic Vinegar Reduction Video .  My final product:

This is what the plate looked like after about 1 minute:  

Yummilicious!