It’s Christmas morning at the Kincaid’s, and Xmas mornings were always steeped with several traditions going back generations, through several family lines. From the Cardoza line, is the tradition of making Vinha d'alhos (veen-ah-tha-shh), a Portuguese breakfast meat. The recipe was passed down from my great-great-grandmother Andrade to my mother. The story goes, it was passed down to each of the first born daughters. My mother passed that recipe down to all three of her kids. From Tejada line, the Tejada’s was all about linguica on Christmas day, and any special holiday or occasion. Back in my youth in the east bay, if your family didn’t have a tradition of making your own linguica, then you went to Santos Linguica Factory in San Leandro. I will write about the story of Santos, in separate post.

Another breakfast tradition is my father’s crowd favorite, the xmas morning dutch baby. A German pancake, that is also called a hootenanny, dutch puff or a hooligan. The dutch baby is such an easy recipe and it’s literally show stopper every xmas morning. My parents had a subscription to Sunset magazine for much of my childhood. After my father passed away, my mother even threw out editions during her purge. In 1977, Sunset magazine published their recipe for the Dutch Baby for the first time and as you can see the cover showcased the now famous morning treat.

My father kept the original recipe clipping and for Christmas in the late 90’s my mother handed all three of us a photocopy of Dad’s original receipt along with new Dutch Baby pans. I used mine for at least two decades, sadly the cuts into the teflon were now rusted. Honestly, I might have recycled it at some point. After my father’s passing in 2009, I believe my brother got his original copy. I believe. I still have a box in storage somewhere with books from my mothers house. I believe have her Betty Crocker binder, which she stashed many receipes into. This morning treat, was just that, a sugary treat. While recipe is simply flour, water, eggs and butter. The toppings is where the gold is! In my youth, my father would have syrup, both log cabin and maple, powdered sugar, lemons and more butter. For me, it was about the butter. The only part of this tradition. I am proud to say I didn’t continue was the Log Cabin syrup, which in college I learned heaps about, what it was truly made of. Nothing natural!

I believe the first xmas my dad made dutch babies, was in 1978. In the 80’s we loved the xmas morning treat so much, he started making it for Easter morning and sometimes for our birthday, if our birthday was on the weekend. My siblings and I have carried on this tradition, and my brother has been trying to perfect his own recipe of dutch babies. I think he uses cake flour vs. regular flour. Myself, I keep to my dad’s recipe. I will admit my brother’s are puffier and a lot more pretty, and lower in fat, because he doesn’t use a whole stick of butter like myself, and what receipe calls for. While my father never spent a xmas morning with us before his passing. My mother spent every xmas eve and morning with us after his passing. A tradition I got to experience with my Great-Grandmother, and Grandmother for most of the 80’s and 90’s. All of those morning past and present were spent with a Dutch Baby or two in the oven.

Last Christmas, Lochlan asked to learn how to make the treat. It was fun watching him measure everything out. It reminded me of when I used to watch my dad cook in the kitchen on Christmas morning. When I say this treat is easy to make, it’s perfect for xmas morning. You can pop it in the oven and then go open stockings while it bakes, and even have some downtime as the kids enjoy their stocking gifts. Over the years I have seen some restaurants attempt this morning faire. Some successfully and some were experimentation gone in the wrong direction. In our family, the tradition is to use a cast iron pan to bake the Dutch Baby. I think mom’s pan, really was used through most of the 2000’s because I found in using a cast iron skillet, the pancake was cooked more evenly.

As I pass this tradition down to my kids, they are already thinking outside of the box. Lochlan prefers to eat his with strawberry jam. And on social media, I keep saving crazy recipes of savory dutch babies to test out. The one I haven’t gotten the balls to make yet, is the smoked salmon recipe, because, well, I am the only one who is going to eat it. I need a small cast iron pan to make my own personalized dutch baby. I know we have so many more photos of my dad cooking on xmas morning. I was just happy to find this one. I remember this morning, because it was Clem’s first xmas morning with my family in 2002. If your family hasn’t tried this tradition, give it a fluffy whirl. There are countless versions of the Dutch Baby recipes on the internet these days. The original 1977 Sunset Magazine recipe can be found HERE.

The Dutch Baby has a long American history. Adapted from a german pancake recipe, the delight is most often referred to as a pancake and sometime a popover. It’s origin is found at a Seattle restaurant in the early 1900’s, and it was published for the first time in a cookbook by the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in 1919. In the 1960’s New York Time critic Craig Clairborne and all around bad ass of the cooking industry published a dutch baby recipe in his weekly column and the recipae started a trend. Of course then came the 1977 publication in Sunset, which took this breakfast delight to a whole new level. What are some of your families holiday traditions?

Dad's Dutch Baby Recipe

hkFAMILY5.COM