With summer officially here, the stone fruit season is now seriously underway. Apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, and all the hybrids in between, are dropping off trees and showing up in markets. Gobble them up now, they don’t last long!
(All links open a new page, so you won’t lose your spot when you look around! Get information on gardening and cultural traditions, recipes, stories, and more!)
We have a few trees filled with fruit at varying stages of ripeness. Right now the apricots have come and gone, some plums and nectarines are good to go, and I’m looking at tons of green peaches and other plums to come. Time to figure out what to do with them. Can I just eat them fresh? Yes, but I don’t need to write a recipe about that, now do I? (Read here to see how to properly pit a plum without stabbing yourself, generally considered a bad thing.)
I’m normally not a fan of oversweet breakfasts, they just sit with me and weigh me down. But the lure of fresh picked fruit is too powerful to ignore. So I look for ways to balance the sweetness of the fruit while still providing something satisfying and filling to start off the day (or late, late, late morning for us. Hey, it was still before noon.). This baked pancake has very little added sugar, just enough to enhance the fruit. It also uses whole wheat flour, which gives a nutty flavor and more wholesome boost.
You could easily start part of this recipe the day before to reduce the amount of morning time spent on preparation. If you mix the dry ingredients for the pancake batter and cut the fruit in advance, you will shave a few minutes off. No matter what, it’s a pretty quick and easy dish to put together!
Stone Fruit Oven Pancake Recipe
Ingredients
For the fruit:- Stone fruits (peaches, plums, nectarines, etc.), pitted and sliced thin, strawberries also make a good addition
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 Tbsp. brown sugar
For the batter:
-
- 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill) or 1 c. all purpose and 1 c. whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 c. buttermilk (or 1 3/4 c. milk + 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, this is what I used)
- 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large oven-proof skillet or casserole dish, put the butter and 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Put the skillet in the oven until the butter melts. Remove the skillet and place the fruit slices all over the bottom. There should be just enough fruit to cover, but not overlap. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the fruit. Use more or less depending on the sweetness of your fruit. Put the skillet back into the oven to start baking while you prepare the batter.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. For the flour, you should fluff and scoop to measure. Beat the egg in a small bowl. If using milk, add the lemon juice to the milk and stir together. Add the soured milk, or buttermilk, to the egg and beat together well. Add the oil and beat again.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together quickly. Mix just until the flour is wet, but don’t worry if some small lumps remain. You don’t want to over mix or you will cause the batter to be tough. It’s not bread, no kneading!
Remove the pan from the oven (careful, it’s hot!), and pour the batter over the fruit. You can use a spatula to smooth the fruit around if they get too pushed out of place. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The top should be a light golden brown, and should be cooked in the middle. The juices from the fruit should be bubbling.
Allow the pancake to cool for just a bit after removing from the oven. This will allow the juices to settle and thicken, and also get absorbed into the pancake. To serve, cut through with a spatula and flip the pieces over onto a plate. If you want, you can add butter and/or syrup, honey, or even jam. Breakfast is ready!
Mostly Greek 
Years ago, before the last of the orchards were completely exterminated, we all ate an abundance of whatever fruit grew in our neighborhood. Kids in Sunnyvale ate sweet cherries in every form imaginable. Kids in Campbell ate prunes in every form imaginable. We got apricots in every form imaginable, which is why almost all of us grow apricot trees in our gardens, and then give ALL the fruit away. Anyway, I find that I sometimes crave an apricot pie. It sound weird, but it would be nice. I would not even know how to make such a pie. It seems to me that apricots would turn to goo in a pie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like a great childhood in that neighborhood!! The apricots do get soft in a pie, but oh my, they are so tasty if done right!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I never got a bad pie! It was a great childhood. It is impossible to imagine that it was ‘there’.
LikeLiked by 1 person