Dutch baby pancake recipe
When I think back to my childhood, I don’t think “deprivation” or “missing out.” But the fact that I didn’t know about and had never had a Dutch Baby until I was an adult makes me a little sad, like my family was out of the loop. So many people recall fond memories of leisurely Sunday family breakfasts with Mom pulling a puff of sweet heaven out of the oven. Wow. My mom did not get that memo. My husband came home when we were first married with a small pizza box from a restaurant called Dinah’s by Los Angeles International Airport. Inside was a very buttery, cinnamon and sugar-covered disc of sliced apples held together with a minimum of batter. “It’s a German apple pancake. Have you never had one of these before?” Wow. No, I had not. A Dutch Baby pancake, similar to the German apple pancake, is a puffed, kind of ugly pancake that is more egg-y than flour-y. It’s not quite like a pancake that you make on the stove in that it’s a little denser, but very delicious it its own way and so much easier because you make the batter in a blender and then bake the whole thing in the oven.
The best part of a Dutch Baby oven pancake is when you first pull it out of the oven. It goes in as a thin batter in a skillet, and comes out as an irregularly puffed, golden, warm pancake with a sweet aroma of vanilla. The. Best.
The Dutch Baby pancake recipes I have seen involve the regular suspects: white flour, white sugar, milk, eggs and butter. Those suspects are easily changed to whole grain or even gluten-free flour, maple syrup, almond milk, but I still keep the eggs and butter. You can change the butter to Earth Balance if you need to. But I’m not quite sure how to make a Dutch Baby without eggs. Plus that’s where the protein comes into play if you are wanting to serve this for breakfast on its own.
What you put on a Dutch Baby can vary from lemon juice and butter (very popular actually,) to fresh or cooked fruit to powdered sugar or maple syrup. We keep it simple in our house with seasonal fruit, like sautéed apples and pears in the fall/winter and berries in the summer. It is incredibly good with fresh blueberry sauce. Recipe here and you can make it with frozen blueberries!
I always take two weeks off around Christmas and New Years to spend with my family. Maybe you have a little time off too, or perhaps you are having friends for brunch on New Years Day. These are the days that I like to make breakfasts that are a little more special, that we can sit a savor for a bit longer. Hoping you can find some time to do just that this week. And if you do, this Dutch baby recipe is the perfect one to try.
Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, peaceful and joyous 2015!
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk or almond milk, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup whole grain flour, such as spelt or whole wheat pastry or ¾ cup all-purpose flour or your favorite GF flour blend
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup or sweetener of choice
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Accompaniments: fresh fruit, preserves, butter, powdered sugar
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter in a 9-inch skillet or pie plate and transfer the skillet to the oven until the butter is melted. Brush the sides of the skillet with the melted butter.
- Add eggs, milk, flour, salt, syrup and vanilla to a blender and process for 1 minute.
- Pour batter into the skillet with the melted butter and bake until puffed and set, about 20 minutes.
- Serve immediately with desired accompaniments.
22 Comments
[…] dear friend Pamela Salzman’s Dutch baby pancake recipes, as well as Allison’s from A Girl Defloured, were our inspirations. It took quite a […]
This recipe has become a family staple. My kids love it and I get to sneak three eggs into them without any complaining.
Love it! This is one of those recipes that can go sweet or savory. I have a savory dutch baby pancake recipe on my site with spinach and gruyere. Super delicious, too!
I think my mom must have missed the “Dutch Baby Memo,” too, LOL! I discovered them as an adult, but better late than never! I felt intimidated to try to cook one (not sure why, I guess because I had just never looked into how to do it). I am so glad I found your recipe, because it is SO EASY!!!! Way easier than a normal pancake (which I have made millions of times). No mixing wet & dry ingredients in separate bowls, no weird flipping splatters, no worries about adjusting the burners to get the temp just right, etc. Just blend ingredients and pop in the oven and enjoy! I topped mine with your sauteed apples recipe, walnuts, and a drizzle of maple syrup. SO DELICIOUS!!!!
I’m glad you gave it a try! It’s a great staple recipe and you can make it sweet or savory.
Hi Pamela! Hope you’re well! Could this work with Oat flour?
or almond flour?
I absolutely think it would work with oat flour, but not sure about how to adapt the recipe to use almond flour.
I used a ceramic pie plate… my sides baked up really high and the middle wasn’t cooking as fast … what did I do wrong?
Put foil over sides as not to brown and cooked longer .. smells delicious !
The sides always bake up very high and get somewhat crisp as opposed to the middle which stays softer and more eggy. It sounds like you did everything right. If you want the center to be drier, once the sides are high and done to your liking, reduce the oven temp to 350 and cook until the texture is what you want it to be. I hope that helps!
Hi Pamela, one of our new favorites. After seeing you make this on your Instastory this week I was inspired. Made it two days in a row – love it and easier than pancakes.
That’s awesome! Coincidentally, I made it two days in a row, too. My nieces and nephews begged for it the next day and it’s so easy that I happily obliged! 🙂
Made it with spelt flour in an 8 inch cast iron pan this morning. It was great with some fresh pear! My 20 month old son loved it.
How wonderful! Thank you for the feedback 🙂
Thank you for the inspiration to make this this morning for breakfast. Both of my kids loved it. I sauteed some apples and it was delicious. I have a request for it again for tomorrow. My son said out of all of the pancakes I have made, this one was the best. 🙂
Monica, you are on a roll!
Thanks to your brilliance! I am going to make the blueberry sauce this weekend with some frozen blueberries. We have a blueberry farm near where I live that will open in May and I can’t wait to go and pick them and make your sauce with them. Blueberries are really my favorite fruit. Thank you again!
Thank heavens for frozen fruit!
This is my new favorite breakfast recipe! Easy, delicious, and an absolute crowd pleaser. I found that it comes out best (in a pie dish) using the “bake” rather than “convect” setting on the oven for some reason. It comes out light and fluffy inside, and crispy outside…so good! Thank you for another great recipe Pamela :)!
That’s so interesting! Convection bakes up a little faster, but I wonder why it wouldn’t make as good a Dutch baby as regular oven setting. Thanks!
Hi Pamela,
Can you recommend a good pan to go from stove top to oven? I find the cast irons so heavy and the whole seasoning thing intimidating.
Thanks!
I hear you. Any stainless steel pan with a stainless handle can go from stovetop to oven! I love All-Clad pans the best! For this recipe, you can also use a pie plate instead of a skillet if that’s easier!