Black Forest Dutch Baby

For the cherry topping:
In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and continue cooking for a full minute. Remove from heat and stir in pure almond extract. Set aside until needed.

For the chocolate dutch baby:
Preheat oven to 425ºF with a 9-inch cast iron skillet in the center rack.

In a blender, combine eggs, sugar, salt, flour, cocoa, and milk. Set aside.

Carefully remove hot skillet from oven and add butter. Swirl pan until butter is completely melted and coats the entire pan. Pour excess butter into batter and mix to combine. Slowly pour batter into hot, buttered skillet (see note below) and return to the oven. Bake for 12–15 minutes or until Dutch baby puffs up (it will deflate almost immediately when removed from the oven so don’t be alarmed when this happens).

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before topping with cherry topping and lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Note: Try to avoid pouring all the batter into the skillet in one spot—the force of the pour will remove the butter coating in the pour spot and thepancake will inevitably end up sticking. To avoid this, I like to hold an upside down serving spoon a few inches over the skillet and pour the batter slowly over the back of the spoon while moving the spoon around the skillet. This helps diffuse the force of the pour.

Cherry topping adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum. Chocolate Dutch baby adapted from Deb Perelman.