I spent yesterday celebrating fall at Blue Hill’s annual Harvest Festival, a day long affair at Dan Barber’s farm that I’m fairly sure was designed for 5 year olds, but is nonetheless one of my favorite days of the year (do people have children so they can unapologetically attend these types of events?). A few friends and I rented car and drove up the Hudson to the farm, where we picked and pickled carrots, made honey nut hummus, churned our own butter, and drank a lot of really, really dry cider.
Needless to say, I came back fairly inspired about this whole fall thing, which led to the creation of this Healthy Caramelized Apple Dutch Baby. Dutch babies are one of my favorite breakfasts: they’re essentially an eggy, custardy pancake that already feels much more complex and less carb-heavy than more common griddled fare. This version subs a paleo flour blend in for the normal flour for even more blood sugar balance, and uses coconut sugar and milk in place of cane and cow’s. There is, however, still butter. I go into this in my cookbook in a lot more depth, but I think butter is a fairly healthy food—it’s rich in fat-soluble vitamins that are hard to come by in a normal diet like Vitamins A, E, and K2. It’s also a good source of butryrate, which helps with mitochondrial health. That said, if you’d like to avoid butter, you can sub ghee in this recipe and it’ll work just as well.
Print
Healthy Caramelized Apple Dutch Baby (Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo)
- Yield: 2 – 4 1x
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons grass-fed butter or ghee
- 1 large apple, cored and thin-sliced (I used Honeycrisp)
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt + a pinch
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 2/3 cup + 2 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill paleo flour (can sub 2/3 cup almond flour + 2 tablespoons arrowroot)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a 10 inch cast iron pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the apple slices, 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar, a pinch of fine grain salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, and the ground cinnamon. Cook until apples are beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to spread the apples in an even layer at the bottom of the pan and remove from heat.
- Blend the eggs, coconut milk, flour, 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt until very smooth. Pour over apples and place the whole pan in the oven.
- Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until the edges are brown but not burnt. Remove and serve immediately.
