For a few years now, when baking a Dutch Baby pancake, they would stubbornly refuse to rise. It was equal parts vexing and infuriating, especially given how long the anticipation can build between pre-heating the oven, baking, and finally digging into a fluffy, lemon-and-powdered-sugar confection. I tried everything: different heat, different pans, fresher flour, more/less eggs, etc. etc. All to no avail. Until I heard the craziest thing ever.

Use skim milk.

Skim milk! The sad, wannabe aspartame of the dairy family. Why would I ever have skim milk in my house, let alone use it on purpose? But desperate times call for science, so two Dutch Babies were made, both alike in dignity. One with whole milk, one with 1% (no seriously, I don’t have skim milk in the house).

Well I’ll be damned. One the left was 1% milk, and it curled and puffed nicely. On the right: whole milk with no puffing to be seen. I’m sure a real baker can explain why less fat caused less puff, but the results are impossible to argue with. Other Dutch Baby lifehacks:

• Preheat the pan in the oven while oven is preheating.
• In fact, use a pie pan instead of cast iron. So easy to clean!
• Blend the crap out of the eggs, get lots of air in there.
• After blending the flour & milk into the aerated eggs, let it rest for 15+ minutes so the gluten can strengthen and hold the puff.

Oh, and if you have no idea what a Dutch Baby is, try the following

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup SKIM milk (apparently)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp of butter
• lemon & powdered sugar to top

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and sock the pan in there. Blend eggs extremely well. Then add flour, sugar, milk and blend still further. Let rest. When oven is heated, jostle the batter to homogenize it, remove pan, melt butter in pan, and then pour batter. Replace in oven, bake for 25 minutes until nicely puffed. Serve hot with powdered sugar generously sprinkled on top with some lemon juice.