This irresistibly delicious, sugar and dairy-free spicy satsuma & maple Dutch baby is sure to become your new favourite weekend breakfast.

After just sharing these impossibly chocolaty, fragrant brownies, I’m back to playing with the irresistible mandarin family. At the moment, as it always happens around this time of year, there is an exceeding abundance of citrus in my kitchen. While lemons and limes are favourites throughout the year, come December I’m drawn to other beautiful citrus as well and buy them time and time again. I don’t particularly crave eating them raw (I often find them too acidic) but I love everything else: their colour, fragrance and how they can transform almost every dish they are added to into a wintery wonder: like this sweet & salty hearty salad or them gooey brownies– and how lovely would they be added to this dried fruit & nut couscous?

So a few days back, walking hungrily into the kitchen on a snowy, perfectly wintery Sunday morning, I was only too aware of two things: I was making a Dutch baby and satsumas would somehow be involved. Almond milk, thick amber maple syrup, lots of cinnamon, a pinch of ground cloves and another of nutmeg, eggs and citrus, of course: a whole satsuma zested and half a lemon too. Vegetable oil in a hot pan, 15 minutes in the even hotter oven, done. So very wintery, so appropriate for these lovely flame-coloured beauties. Some smooth mascarpone of the side, a couple drizzles or more of maple and crunchy walnuts dipped in honey and we have ourselves a breakfast feast exactly fir for the season.

Spicy satsuma & maple Dutch baby

WHAT

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 cup almond  milk, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 small satsuma, zest only

1/2 lemon, zest only

3/4 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

130g all purpose flour

a pinch of salt

2 additional tablespoons vegetable oil

to serve: 

1/2 cup softened mascarpone

additional maple syrup

satsumas

HOW

1. Preheat the oven to 250ºC with a medium sized cast iron skillet or frying pan in it.
2. Place the eggs, maple and almond milk in a blender and blend until frothy and combined. Add the oil, zests, spices and blend again. Finally, add the flour and salt and incorporate by running the blender one last time.
3. By now the pan should be very hot, so remove carefully from the oven and add the remaining two tablespoons of vegetable oil; swirl it around so it coats the pan and quickly pour in the batter.
4. Immediately place back in the oven and bake until the center is cooked and the edges are golden brown and puffed, about 15′.
5. Carefully remove from the oven and serve straight away with ample maple syrup, mascarpone and satsumas.