Mini German Pancakes

Here's a fun breakfast you can make this weekend.  My family love German Pancakes (at our house they are called Hootenannies).  So when I saw the idea of making mini ones at a site called Gimme Some Oven I had to try them.

Her recipe is basically the same as the one I make in my 9 x 13 pan, but you add the butter to the batter instead of the pan.  She also adds vanilla and orange zest.  I add the vanilla, but didn't have any orange to zest in my fridge.  I do want to try it one time with the orange zest though.  Sounds yummy!

The great thing about the minis is they turn out as perfect little cups just right to fill with fruit.  I made a triple berry sauce to put in mine.  I also have a German pancake type dish you fill with a peach/sausage filling.  You could make that filling with diced peaches and slice the sausage small and fill this minis up with that too.  Gimme Some Oven filled them with strawberries and syrup.  I have a great strawberry topping that I made for french toast that would also be yummy.  You add orange zest to the strawberries along with some sugar.  So yummy.  This was a fun new way to make something that I mad all the time.  You could also do this for a holiday breakfast and have a bunch of toppings to choose from.  Very fun!

I also made mine in my Demarle muffin tin, so no need for greasing here.  I loved how they work in that pan.  The came out perfect and there was little to clean up.  I f want to know more about my Demarle pan you can see more HERE.

Mini German Pancakes

1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. orange zest (optional)
 1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Blend first six ingredients (milk thru orange zest) in a blender.  Be careful to see that any flour clumps get well-blended. 
2. Blend in butter a little at a time in order to temper the eggs.
3. Grease muffin tins well and distribute batter evenly between 24 tins (I did more like 18. Gimme Some Oven's tins were slightly less than half-full.  I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup and filled it almost full.) Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden on top.
4. Served with your favorite toppings.  (Mine was a dusting of powdered sugar and triple berry sauce.  I have other suggestions up top)