Vanilla Bean German Pancakes with Walnut Baked Apples

Ya'll know how much I loves me my vanilla beans. But you know, I get them so cheap that it seems like a shame to not use them liberally.

I'm trying not to be a try-hard on this one. Maybe the effort put forth in this recipe is all for nothing -typical results could come from 1 tsp. of vanilla extract? I don't know. I just wanted to try something new and different and this was pretty fabulous, we got no complaints.

On the contrary, in fact we had to make it again the next day, and it was gobbled up again. That was only this morning, so who knows what tomorrow could bring.

Vanilla Bean German Pancakes with Walnut Baked Apples

Pancakes:

1/4 cup butter
1 vanilla bean
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
1 cup flour
cinnamon {if desired}

Preheat oven to 400 / 200 degrees


Slice vanilla bean lengthwise, add to milk in a saucepan and steep on low heat and allow to reasonably cool {so that it won't cook the eggs is all}

Place butter in 9x13 or equivalent pan. Place pan in the oven until butter is melted, then remove and set aside

Meanwhile whisk the eggs. Add salt, then the milk. Whisk in the flour.

Remove beans and pour over butter into the baking dish. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and fluffy.

Meanwhile make the Walnut 'Baked' Apples

5-6 apples
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, plus more if you're like that
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Walnuts as desired

I have here a selection of Pink Ladies and Granny S's, just what I had on hand

I half-a$$ed-ly them, which was one part adding in more nutrition, 2 parts laziness, and 1 part avoiding waste.

Throw them into the pan with the same vanilla bean from the batter, the salt, and the butter

After a few minutes of getting the heat going, I threw in the walnuts. Using walnuts for the omega-3's.

After a few minutes the apples soften nicely and the walnuts start to glow amber

Time for seasoning and sweetening, add in the sugar and cinnamon

Let it bubble and boil nicely, add in some more butter now if you're like that and get ready to serve whenever the pancakes are up.