Our Favorite Christmas Breakfast

Hi there!! My name is Melissa Mortenson and I'm the girl behind the Polkadot Chair blog. Mique asked me to be a guest blogger, for her this week and I'm so excited to be here to share some things with you.

If you get a chance stop by my blog and say "hi"- I have lots of craft tutorials and project ideas there.

I don't usually post recipes, but I thought I would for Mique today since this one is unique. (plus a good friend of mine suggested it). Most of my recipes come from my Mom, friends or my favorite cookbooks, but this one I came up with myself, and it took lots and lots of tries to get just right. After a few failed attempts and some burned dishes, I finally nailed it.

I know what you are thinking... it's not even Thanksgiving yet, and this girl shows up with a Christmas post? Well it's never too early to start getting ready for Christmas, I think that's the key to a stress free (or at least less stress, Holiday). Plus this breakfast is good anytime of the year, not just Christmas.

I had always struggled with what to feed my family for breakfast on Christmas day. I usually have intentions of making cinnamon rolls the night before, or waking up and making a super fancy meal. However, I always get too busy for the cinnamon rolls the night before, and I'm usually super tired Christmas morning (due to my kids waking me up every hour all night!).

One of our favorite restaurants is The Original Pancake house, they have this dish called the Dutch baby, it's to die for! We don't have a restaurant in town, so I've been trying to find a dish that is close.

This one is NOT the same as the restaurant but a close second. It's the combination of a few different recipes, then changed to be made individually.

The best part!?!? Well you make it in the blender, so there is little mess, and it bakes in less than 15 min! The hardest part is cutting up all the fruit.

You will need individual baking dishes, ramekins won't work, you need something with short sides, like mini pie plates or petite au gratin pans.

Individual Puff Pancakes -

Yield 4 small or 3 large pancakes (depends on the size of your dish).

I doubled this recipe and it gave me enough for 6 dishes, my dishes are pretty large.

Preheat oven to 425

In blender mix:

1/2 c all purpose flour

1/2 c whole or 2 % milk

2 eggs

3 T sugar

1/2 t vanilla

1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

pinch of lemon zest

pinch of salt

Place 1 T of butter in each baking dish. Place dishes in the oven for about 10 minutes until the butter melts and the dishes are hot.

Without removing the dishes from the oven, pour batter into each baking dish about 1/2" deep. Do not stir and mix in the butter. (just evenly divide your batter among your dishes).

Close oven and cook for 10 min. Check. Cook additional time if necessary. They go from done to burned fast.. so watch them.

The pancakes are done when they are lightly golden brown and puffed. (see photo). Serve immediately

Serve with: (this is the important part!)

fresh sliced strawberries

fresh sliced bananas

sifted powdered sugar

strawberry syrup

whip cream