Have you even heard of a Dutch baby before? Apparently, they are pretty big in the US, and I’ve seen mouth-watering recipes on Half-Baked Harvest (one of my favourite US food blogs), but you don’t really hear about them much in the UK. Are they for brunch or are they for dessert? Potluck have, on a few occasions, brought these impressive, puffed up pancakes to their specials menu, but it’s not something you tend to see on the average Scottish menu.

Regardless, the sound of a giant, sweetened Yorkshire pudding filled with cream and berries was something I simply had to try, because doesn’t that just sound epic? I thought so. The key piece of equipment you need to recreate this beauty is an oven safe pan, and there’s something quite special about serving the completed dish straight to your table in the cast iron skillet you cooked it in, although that does make dividing it up a bit messy!

I’ve chosen to fill my Dutch baby with one of my favourite flavours: mascarpone, white chocolate and raspberry. I use this cream in cakes, on pavlovas, in an Eton mess and it is just heavenly. If, for whatever reason, you are not a fan of those flavours, you can fill it however you damn well please. Serve it simply with whipped cream and fresh berries, or, in this hot weather, why not pair it with a couple of scoops of your favourite ice cream?

If you’re following my recipe, make sure you choose good-quality white chocolate, as it can be tricky to melt without burning or splitting. I opted for Menier Patissier Swiss white chocolate.

Whether you choose to serve it as an indulgent brunch or as dessert after a Sunday roast is entirely up to you…

Dutch Baby with Raspberries and White Chocolate

Easy | Cook: 20 minutes | Serves 4-6

For the Dutch baby:

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon caster sugar

150ml full fat milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

100g plain flour

Pinch of salt

25g unsalted butter

For the mascarpone cream:

200ml double cream

125g mascarpone

100g good-quality white chocolate

Punnet of raspberries, to serve

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan and immediately put your oven safe pan in there to heat up while you make the batter. Beat the eggs and the sugar in a bowl until pale and frothy, then whisk in the flour, milk, vanilla and a pinch of salt until you have a smooth but firm batter. You can make this batter the night before if you like to save yourself some time, just cover and refrigerate it, giving it a stir before using.

Add the butter to the hot pan and swirl it to melt (make sure you have a good pair of oven gloves, so you don’t burn your hands) then quickly pour in the batter, return to the oven and leave to cook until risen and golden, about 18-20 minutes. Do NOT open the oven until at least 15 minutes have passed, or you risk the pudding collapsing.

While it’s baking, make your cream. Melt your chocolate in a heatproof bowl set above a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Set aside to cool slightly. Whisk the double cream until it is just beginning to thicken, then add the mascarpone and whisk again until combined, adding an extra splash of cream or milk if it gets too thick. Gently fold in the cooled melted chocolate to combine.

Remove the Dutch baby from the oven, dollop in the cream, scatter with raspberries and dust with a little icing sugar, then take it to your table and wait for the thunderous applause.