Apple Oven Pancake

By request.  :-)  This is the recipe from Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking.  (Hopefully that's not a violation of copyright or anything.)  I left out the weight measurements for the ingredients and some other parenthetical remarks (e.g. metric measurements), because I'm not that fancy of a baker. 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cups diced peeled tart apples, such as Granny Smith (3 medium)
2 tablespoons firmly packed golden brown sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon, strained
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat to 425F.  

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter.  Add the apples and saute, turning as needed, just until tender, 5-7 minutes.  Sprinkle with the brown sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon and stir to combine.  Remove from the heat.

Place a baking dish 12 inches in diameter or 9 by 13 inches in the oven to heat for 5 minutes.  Remove the baking dish from the oven, add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter to it, and tilt the dish to coat the bottom and sides with the butter.  Spoon the sauteed apples over the bottom of the dish to make an even layer.  

by hand:  In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, vanilla and salt, just until blended
by food processor:  Combine the eggs, milk, flour, vanilla and salt.  Pulse 2 or 3 times, just until blended.

Carefully pour the batter over the hot fruit.  Bake until puffed and golden brown, 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and, using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the top with confectioners' sugar.  Serve immediately.   

There you go.  :-)  My comments:  I never bake anything at 425 . . . maybe I should, but 375 worked just fine, too.  I'm pretty sure my mother never used lemon juice, and I didn't have any on hand the other day, either.  She used to do the sauteeing and baking all in her lovely large cast-iron pan, but I used a frying pan and baking dish like the recipe called for since I don't own the cast-iron.  The apples get all syrupy in the butter and brown sugar, and then the egg-mixture puffs up beautifully high . . . ahh.  Since our pancake is long-gone (2 breakfasts and 1 lunch for me, though it says it serves 6!), I don't have a picture of my own, so I'll share a picture of the pumpkin I bought the other day.

It's a Cinderella pumpkin from Trader Joe's, and isn't it beautiful?  :-)  There should be many pumpkin pies when I decide it's finished decorating the kitchen!