How to Make a Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake
This rhubarb puffed oven pancake is a favourite quick breakfast or fancy brunch recipe at our house. With a few everyday ingredients including freshly picked, you’ll be ready impress your brunch guests.
Also read: Rhubarb Bread Pudding, Three Cheese & Sausage Breakfast Bake, How to Make Rhubarb Mimosas
I was happy to share this recipe with the Manitoba Canola Growers who took the gorgeous photo above and include this recipe on their CanolaEatWell website. You’ll find some great recipes on that site. But enough talk, here’s the recipe for Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake followed by some helpful tips.
Recipe for Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake
Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 cup diced rhubarb
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 1-2 Tbsp icing (confectioner's) sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
- Pour oil into a 10-inch oven-proof dish and place in oven to heat.
- In large bowl, whisk eggs well.
- Add milk and vanilla to eggs and whisk until well blended.
- Add flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt and mix until smooth.
- Remove hot dish from oven.
- Sprinkle rhubarb slices evenly on bottom of pan.
- Pour batter over rhubarb and immediately return to oven.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until puffy and golden brown throughout with raised, darker brown edges. The puffing happens towards the end of baking, be patient.
- Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
9 Tips for Perfect Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake
This Rhubarb Puffed Oven Pancake recipe makes a delicious and tasty rhubarb dish. It uses only 10 everyday ingredients and is full of chemistry magic everyone will enjoy, especially with a rhubarb mimosa on the side. To ensure you get the full display of magic, here are 9 tips for puffy success.
1. Be prepared.
Channel your inner girl guide. Be prepared. This pancake recipe moves fast.
Measure out your dry ingredients, eggs, milk and vanilla and rhubarb separately first. Since you’re going to heat up your pan, you want to be ready to mix and pour the batter at just the right time.
2. Get enough puff: start with heat.
To get started, preheat your oven with your oiled baking dish inside the oven. Get the pan and oven nice and hot while you prep your batter.
Here’s why. The hot oil stops the pancake from sticking and the hot pan makes the batter puff and crisp up around the edges as soon as the batter hits the heat. The rest of the pancake batter will cook through during the 25 -30 min cooking time, but without the hot pan you can’t initialize the puff-magic.
4. Whip those eggs for a fluffy puffy pancake.
Dear reader. Don’t make the same mistake I made the first time I made this recipe (I whipped my eggs with my milk). Whip your eggs separately and then mix into your milk. When you beat the eggs well, you add air bubbles to the batter. These air pockets will expand in the heat of the oven, helping the batter to rise and create a tall puff. The heat then firms up the protein in the eggs to help the pancake hold it’s shape. Whip those eggs and you will have a lovely, light and fluffy pancake, instead of dense and cakey one.
Note: This mistake did not ruin our enjoyment of the meal and my hungry munchkins did not even notice. Our favourite rhubarb pancake was still delicious and well-cooked, just missing it’s namesake puffy presentation.
Remember, the extra special magic in this recipe is in the puff. Whip those eggs. Whip ’em good.
Whisk your dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Be sure to blend them well so you don’t get any salty bites in your final batter.
5. Mix the batter Goldilocks style – just enough.
Mix well. Now mix your wet and dry mixtures together. Whisk well, ensuring there are no clumps of flour left along the sides/bottom. Use a silicone or rubber spatula to completely stir along the sides. You definitely don’t want to leave any dry lumps in the batter – these will show up in your pancake later as grainy and tasteless bites. Also, unmixed flour will weigh the batter down during the puffing process.
But don’t overmix. Flour provides structure and supports the eggs as they rise in this recipe. Flour is where you find the protein called gluten. When you mix gluten with moisture (eggs, milk) and agitate (mix) it creates the structure needed to support the rise and lift from the eggs. Amazing! We need that. But enough is enough. If you over mix the flour, you overwork the gluten. This creates a tough and chewy pancake.
Mix it just right. Mix well, but easy does it. Too much mixing takes the puff out of this pancake.
7. Keep the pan hot.
Pull out your hot baking dish. Toss the sliced rhubarb in the pan. Quickly pour the batter over top. Get it back in the hot oven. Set your timer and no peeking!
The egg-filled batter hits the hot pan. It immediately starts to crisp and cook. The mixture will climb the sides of the pan as the eggs rise. Your pancake needs to finish it’s rising work in this super hot environment. Even once the eggs have reached their maximum peak they still need the heat to finish cooking in the middle.
8. No Peeking!
If you open that nice hot oven during this moment of chemistry magic to just have a quick peek, you can make your puff pancake “fall”. This means it can collapse from the dramatic change in temperature. All your hard work and “puff” is gone.
9. Serve puffy pancake immediately.
Once your pancake is golden brown and well puffed along the edges it’s time to eat. Serve immediately. Don’t let it sit to cool or it’ll glue itself to the dish. Slide a knife along the edge to loosen the pancake. Flip it out or lift it out with a wide spatula. Cut into 3-4 wedges to share.
Serve with syrup and berries or a squeeze of fresh lemon and icing sugar.
What do you like to serve with your pancakes? Comment below or share your photos with me on Instagram @getgettys or Facebook @GettyStewart.HomeEconomist.
Recipe created by Getty Stewart for the rhubarb cookbook. Recipe enjoyed and article written by Katie Anderson, dedicated food friend of GettyStewart.com. Katie is often found feeding 2 hungry boys, seemingly 100 times a day. Whether in the kitchen or the garden, bright colours and strong flavours are herdriving force (read: sunshine and good coffee). Sign up to get articles by Getty delivered to your inbox. You’ll get recipes, practical tips and great food information like this.
can I use gluten free flour in place of all purpose flour for this recipe?
I have not tried it in this recipe, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t work. enjoy.