Having eggs in the refrigerator is like holding the ace, king, queen and jack of trump in a bridge game. If you’ve got eggs, you’ve got breakfast, lunch or dinner, and the makings of a meal for you or your family. Sure, they contain saturated fat, but one large egg has less than 2 grams of it, while one tablespoon of butter serves up 7 grams.
When one of my two college boys ambles into the kitchen in search of breakfast (or more accurately, lunch) after a night out on the town with his buddies, I usually think of eggs, and, if I have time, I’ll offer to make him an Oven Pancake, or an O.P., as it’s known in our house. His eyes will light up as much as they can.
One of the biggest milestones in my egg history has been nailing the O. P.
Years ago, I came across a recipe for Dutch Baby, a mixture of eggs, milk, and flour, baked in a frying pan in the oven and sweetened with powdered sugar and cinnamon. I tried it one Sunday morning with spotty success: it emerged from the oven looking puffy and interesting, but it stuck to the pan and resembled pieces of a run- over popover by the time I had scraped it out and arranged it on a plate. My oldest son, Eli, who was about three at the time, loved it.
So I kept experimenting.
And now, I can make a killer O.P. every time. It’s incredibly easy to make and it looks truly awesome. The secrets? You need a perfectly seasoned cast iron frying pan. Let the batter sit for several minutes before you pour it into the pan, so any tiny lumps you can’t see dissolve. Preheat the oven and wait until it gets hot before you put the O.P. in. And be prepared to spend a good 25 minutes from start to finish. There’s no rushing an O.P.
Here’s the recipe:
The Upland O.P.
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
Preheat the oven to 400 ° F. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a whisk until they’re foamy. Add the flour and the milk and beat until smooth. Pour the olive oil into the frying pan and add the butter. Put the pan in the oven for about 2 minutes, until the butter melts. Put the pan on the stovetop and tilt it, making sure the butter and oil are blended and the bottom and most of the sides are greased. Pour the batter into the pan. It will look like this:
Set a timer for 18 minutes and put the pan into the oven. Don’t peek before the buzzer rings. Check the O.P. after 18 minutes. It should puff up and be lightly browned around the edges. Let it go for a few more minutes if it isn’t brown. Using a spatula, gently lift the O.P. out of the pan and set it down on a dinner plate. It should come right out in one lovely piece. Dust it with a little powdered sugar if you wish and eat it at once.
And here’s Eli, getting in touch with his inner appetite.
For sure, amazing things happen when you bite into an O.P.
-Georgia
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