On the health page of the Jan. 11 Lakeville Journal, I promised to post additional apple recipes on Salty Plums. This high-calorie treat doesn’t belong on the health page, and I have to confess that I haven’t tested it yet. But it comes from Joan Nathan’s always dependable (and infinitely interesting) “Jewish Cooking in America” (a book that proves that Gourmet Jewish Food is not an oxymoron). It reminds me of one of the signature dishes of my hometown: Chicago, a city that really understands high-calorie soul food. Try it, and post your own results here!

German Apple Schmarren (Sugar-coated Apple Pancakes)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 large apples
2 tablespoons butter
Confectioners’ sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Preheat the oven to 350.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and milk and beat until smooth.
Peel, core and slice the apples in eighths. Gently stir them into the batter. Heat a 10-inch ovenproof skillet on the cooktop. Brush with the butter, then pour in the batter. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pancake puffs up at the sides and is crisp and brown on top. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice.

Nathan offers a variation on this from Lois Greene of Waterbury. When Lois was a child, her father “combined the eggs and other ingredients in a huge iron frying pan. After a short while, he put the apple slices over the top of the eggs and sprinkled them liberally with sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. As the eggs cooked, they puffed up around the apples. When he judged the eggs and apples done, he cut the pancake like a cake.”