This thick, custardy baked apple pancake takes me straight back to my childhood. Dust it with powdered sugar for a sweet finishing touch & dig in!
My sister and I used to beg my mom for things like Fruity Pebbles and Frosted Flakes. She didn’t cave often, but I remember the few times she did… she’d sigh and say, “If I buy this, are you really going to eat it this time?” We’d smile and nod, excited to be taking home the same colorful boxes our friends had.
We’d each eat maybe one bowl full. Then up in the pantry it would go… to collect dust and then ultimately get tossed in the next pantry clean-out. The smiling kids on Saturday morning commercials would convince us to beg again… and we’d try SO hard to like the stuff. But sugary soggy flakes and blue milk were not for us.
Especially when homemade muffins, pancakes, eggs, doughnuts, and this German(ish) apple pancake were all part of our regular breakfast rotation.
This was a staple of our childhood, and my mom still makes it every time she visits.
Apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon get softened in a pan with butter, and an egg mixture gets poured on top. The thin egg layer and pillowy apples create more of a custard-like texture than a traditional doughy pancake.
Bake until it puffs up and serve hot slices right out of the pan.
For more brunch ideas, try these vegan banana pancakes, this shakshuka, or this frittata!
(The photo above is of a 5-inch mini skillet, but the recipe makes enough to fill approx a 12 or 13-inch skillet. Use either a seasoned cast iron skillet, or a non-stick pan).
Apple Pancake
- 2 tablespoons butter (or vegan earth balance)
- 3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup almond milk (or regular milk)
- 2 tablespoons flour (any kind: white, wheat, spelt*, or a gluten-free blend)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Whisk together eggs and milk.
- Mix together flour and baking powder and stir it into the egg/milk mixture.
- In a skillet, heat butter, add the apple slices and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar mixture and cook, stirring, until soft. About 5 minutes.
- Pour the batter over the apples and sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on top.
- Bake until it puffs up, about 18-20 minutes.
- Dust with a little powdered sugar.
This is my go to breakfast. I sauté my apples in my 12 inch cast iron fry pan in the butter mixed with some of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. I place the sliced, peeled, and cored apples in a layer and never touch them. When they are soft I put a handful each of raisins and walnuts over the apples. Pour the egg mixture over it all and top with the rest of the brown sugar/cinnamon. Bake and Yumm!
What may I bake it in if I don’t have a castiron pan?
I don’t have a skillet. Can this be made on the stovetop? Or is there any other way for me to make it?
It needs to be made in a skillet on the stovetop.
This was absolutely terrible. It was scrambled eggs with cinnamon apples on top 🤷🏼♀️
I made this today with disappointing results. Followed the recipe to a T, but mine came out like scrambled eggs with apple slices. It was so bad we had to throw the whole thing out. I’m wondering if the 2 TBS of flour could possibly be a typo? I’ve looked into other recipes, and they call for at least 1/2 cup of flour, so I’m wondering if that could be the issue. Would love to know because I would love to make this again – it looked so good!
Hi Jaclyn, I’m sorry you didn’t like this one. It is definitely more eggy like a German apple pancake (not like regular pancakes at all). It’s a bit different but once the powdered sugar goes on, we really love it this way. We have a dutch baby recipe in the cookbook that is less eggy and more doughy – I think it uses 1/2 cup of flour – I don’t have it handy right now but I can send it to you later if you like.
Looks amazing!!
What size is the skillet?
Hi! I just recently came across your recipe and it is FABULOUS! I’ve made something similar several times before but it didn’t include the apple/brown sugar/cinnamon you used. Yours is by far the best! The only thing I had to do different for me was to use the Splenda brown sugar because I’m a diabetic. I’m going to make this for my future mother-in-law this weekend. Oh, perhaps I shouldn’t because I’ll have to make it for her every weekend! I’m kidding, really I am! Lol
I made this recipe over the weekend and it was absolutely delicious!!! I featured it on my blog today: http://www.love-laurie.com/2014/10/spiced-apple-puffed-skillet-pancake.html
Hi! I have a quick question. Could I make this without eggs? Or do you know of any kind of substitute? Thanks!
Hi Samantha – this one is really all about the eggs so I wouldn’t recommend substituting them (it’s more custard-y than it is a traditional fluffy pancake). I’m working on some vegan pancake recipes though – stay tuned!
I just tried out this recipe and it was delicious! I loved the egginess of it – was not expecting that haha. I wanted to let you know I featured the link to your recipe on my website.
Thanks!
This recipe looks so beautiful. Just a question, not sure if I’m just overlooking it, but where does the other one tbl of butter go?
thanks! The butter isn’t divided – it cooks with the apples. It’s the brown sugar is divided between steps 5 & 6. Does that help?
Not sure what I did as I followed the recipe and ended up with something more like an apple omelette than a pancake….. 🙁
Hi Tammy, it’s not really supposed to be like traditional pancakes – it’s more of an eggy crepe…
Yeah, same here. I think I may have had too much apple and not enough puff.