Baking with the Dixie Chicks: Drie-in-de-pan

There are many things I love, for example my U!S!A! U!S!A! patriotic apron, cooking, baking, and the Dixie Chicks. A perfect morning is when all these things come together in my kitchen.

On top of my tiny kitchen radio there’s a short stack of three CDs: Wide Open Spaces, Fly, and Taking the Long Way – all Dixie Chicks albums. I enjoy listening to these albums so much that I often find myself timing things in Dixie Chicks songs: something may take a “Cowboy Take Me Away” or a “Goodbye Earl” and two “Sin Wagons.” So when I recently started craving “drie-in-de-pan,” a regional Dutch type of raisin hotcakes that I hadn’t had since childhood, I immediately took to my trusty Google machine, discovered I had all the ingredients, and gladly hopped into my kitchen to whip up a batch of these tasty treats, hitting the radio’s play button as soon as I walked in. The batter takes under two “Cowboy Take Me Away”s to make, and the cooking itself is done in a “Goodbye Earl,” a “Hole in My Head,” and a “Some Days You Gotta Dance.” How do you make these? Why, let me show you.

The batter (makes 9 hotcakes):
300 ml (1 1/4 U.S. cup) milk
250 gr (2 U.S. cups) self-rising flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or regular granulated sugar and a drop of vanilla essence)
1 packed cup of soaked raisins (make sure to dry them properly in a clean tea towel after soaking)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and sugar. I like to add an extra pinch of baking powder to get them even fluffier, but this isn’t necessary. Make a little dent in the flour and pour in the beaten egg (or be lazy like me and just crack the egg right in). Add 2/3 of the milk and stir with a wooden spoon. For flip’s sake, don’t use your mixer unless there’s a good reason your arms can’t stir for a couple of minutes. I know your KitchenAid is probably begging you to be used, but resist its siren call. You don’t need it. Add some more of the milk until you have a thick, gloopy mixture. Toss in the raisins and stir until combined.

Heat your favorite skillet, melt a little margarine in it, then use your wooden spoon (look, handy! You can use it for two separate things!) to spoon in three blobs of batter. Like so:

They should be about the size of… squashed baseballs. Yeah. Also, now the name “drie-in-de-pan” is explained: this is Dutch for “three in a pan.” If you bake more or less than three at a time, they won’t taste as good, so beware.
They’re ready to be flipped over once bubbles start rising to the surface.

Ta-dah! Turn the heat down a little so the insides can cook through without the bottom side burning. When you think they’re ready, slide them onto a plate or into a preheated oven so they can keep warm.
Once your three batches are done, serve them with a little powdered sugar, like so:

Now hop on that Sin Wagon and enjoy! Or as we say in Dutch, eet smakelijk! And stay tuned for next time, when I’ll tackle Dutch pancakes.

(Sidenote: you could make these vegan by using your regular vegan pancake milk and egg substitutes. Additionally, these work great with a little grated apple in the batter as well. Just make sure you adjust the milk accordingly, because the apple adds moisture.)