Dutch Baby Pancake
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Dutch baby pancakes are a type of popover that is popular in America. They are baked in a pan, similar to popovers.
They can be served sweet or savoury, making them flexible.
When served sweet, we typically fill this with mascerated fruit.
When served savoury, they can be topped with a plethora of fillings. The key is that they will be served as flatbreads eaten with a fork and knife. This makes them a good substitute for all these fancies open-faced toasts.
Origin
Dutch baby pancakes also go by a different name: german pancakes. “Dutch” is a corruption of the deutsch.
These were invented in the early 1900’s, in the Pacific North West.
Popover or Yorkshire Pudding
Dutch babies are closely related to popovers or Yorkshire puddings. It’s basically the same egg batter. The difference is in the technique and baking vessel.
Popovers and Yorkshire puddings are baked in a muffin-esque tins. This produces individual rolls.
Dutch babies are baked in a larger pan. The result is more like a pancake or flatbread.
Ignore pretension surrounding gatekeeping of Yorkshire pudding. You can make Yorkshire pudding with butter or lard, it doesn’t necessarily need to be drippings.
Clafoutis
Dutch babies are the same recipe as a clafoutis.
Clafoutis are baked in a smaller pan and at a lower temperature. This has less oven spring and the resulting dish is more like a flan or custard.
Composition
Dutch babies are composed primarily of flour, milk, and egg. The batter is very wet, like a crepe (looser than pancakes). Rough approximation is there is roughly 2 parts of milk and 2 parts of egg for 1 part of flour.
Leavening
Dutch babies do not contain leavening agents. The puff will be exclusively due to steam. This means it’s very important to use preheated pan and higher baking temperature. The puff is impressive and deflates once pulled from the oven. This is akin to souffles.
Flavour and Texture
The high egg ratio makes this an eggy dish. It’s not a custard but it’s not a pancake either. The flavour is close to an egg souffle. The texture is similar, with a thin and crispy crust.
Dutch baby pancakes are really quick and easy to pull off. Consider them if you have a fresh fruit you want to serve it with.
This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Baking.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage | Serving size for 8” cast iron (g) |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 20 |
| Salt | 1.5% | pinch |
| Sugar | 10% | 2 |
| Eggs | 250% | 1 large |
| Milk | 21% | 30 |
| Vanilla extract | 1.3% | 1 |
| Butter | 65% | 13 |
Technique
- Grease a 8” cast iron skillet.
- Preheat the oven to 220 C (425 F), with skillet.
- Whisk dry ingredients.
- Whisk wet ingredients, except for butter.
- Whisk together. You can opt to use a blender.
- Melt half the butter and mix it into the batter.
- Put remaining butter into preheated skillet. It should immediately melt and sizzle.
- Pour batter into pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes. It should puff impressively, be golden all over, and some deeper browning on edges.
- Dust with powder sugar and fill with toppings.