Who doesn’t like delicious typical mini Dutch pancakes aka Dutch poffertjes?
It’s amongst the best snacks of Dutch cuisine, if we may say so (as Dutchies). The secret to a poffertjes recipe lies in two ingredients.
In authentic mini Dutch pancakes there is buckwheat flour and yeast! We like to tell you how to make old-fashioned mini Dutch pancakes* – it’s not hard at all!
And we’ll tell you how to customize the recipe for vegan poffertjes.
*we have to clarify that poffertjes aren’t technically mini pancakes, because we use a different kind of batter!
Poffertjes Pronunciation
It’s hard, we know! Poffertjes is phonetically written as /ˈpɔ.fər.tjə/. And I’ve added a little audio recording of how to pronounce poffertjes. But mini Dutch pancakes is fine too.
Mini Dutch Pancake Batter
Poffertjes are one of the most famous snacks from Dutch cuisine! Making a batter for these mini pancakes is not that difficult.
The only thing is: you have to let the batter raise for an hour, or until it has at least doubled.
How do you make the batter? You make a buckwheat flour/all-purpose flour mix, you add instant yeast*, melted butter, egg and half the milk with a hand mixer.
Then, mix the rest of the milk through and sugar + salt. Cover with a damp kitchen cloth and leave to rest for 1 hour, or until your batter has doubled.
Some recipes say 30 minutes of rest time, but then you run the risk that the batter is not sufficiently raised, and then you don’t get soft, airy poffertjes.
*we use instant yeast from Dr. Oetker, as this can be processed immediately in your batter. So you do NOT have to ‘activate’ the yeast in lukewarm milk.
Cooking Mini Pancakes With A Poffertjes Pan
In the Netherlands we obviously have a lot of choice for poffertjes plates. We can even get contact grills with poffertjes plates.
But traditionally, a cast iron poffertjes plate is used for these mini Dutch pancakes.
Make sure you grease the plate properly before heating and make sure your plate is hot before you start cooking, otherwise your mini pancakes won’t be good.
After that, the plate holds the heat well, so you can cook on lower heat. With a squeeze bottle you can conveniently spray batter into the dimples (fill them up to about 90%). Then turn them over with a skewer or fork.
If you can’t get your hands on a cast iron poffertjes plate, we recommend using a takoyaki grill or cake pop maker, these dimples are a bit deeper than a poffertjes plate, but it will get the job done!
Alternatively, you can cook the poffertjes in a regular pan but it will taste differently as it won’t be as ‘pillow-like’.
WARNING! Don’t cook the poffertjes too long, it makes them dry. You want the inside cooked but still soft. If your device is hot, they’ll be ready in a few minutes.
Vegan Poffertjes
For vegan mini Dutch pancakes you leave the egg out, use vegetable milk (we recommend soy milk) and vegan butter! They taste just as good, guaranteed!
Poffertjes Without Yeast
Don’t you feel like waiting so long for your poffertjes batter? Then make mini Dutch pancakes without yeast.
Then they truly become mini pancakes, as you will use American pancake batter!
Replace half the flour with buckwheat flour to get that typical poffertjes flavor. NOTE: your poffertjes are a bit firmer!
Use our (vegan) pancake recipe
Yield: 4 portions
Mini Dutch Pancakes Recipe
This is THE authentic Dutch poffertjes recipe!
Voorbereidingstijd5 minutes
Bereidingstijd10 minutes
Resting time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 125 gram flour, 1 cup
- 125 gram buckwheat flour, 1 cup
- 400 milliliter milk, 1.7 cup
- 50 gram melted butter, 3.5 tablespoon
- 1 egg
- 1 packet instant yeast (7 grams), ¼ oz
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- butter, for baking
Serve with
- butter
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Sift the flour + buckwheat flour into a bowl, mix and make a pit in the middle.
- Pour the melted butter into the pit, add yeast, egg, and half of the milk.
- Mix with a hand mixer and add the rest of the milk while mixing.
- Lastly, add the sugar and salt.
- Cover the batter (in the bowl) with a damp kitchen cloth and let it rest for 1 hour, or until the batter has doubled.
- Heat your cast iron poffertjes plate (or an electronic takoyaki pan). Wait until your pancake pan / plate is really hot. Otherwise, the poffertjes will not taste good! Grease a cast iron plate with butter beforehand.
- Pour the batter into two squeeze bottles. Heat a knob of butter on your poffertjes plate and pipe batter into the poffertjes dimples (fill them to about 90%).
- Once you have finished your round, you can start turning around. When bubbles form on top of the poffertjes, the poffertje is ready to be turned over. Use a fork or skewer for this.
- Make sure you don't bake the poffertjes for too long, they will become too dry!
- Serve the poffertjes with a knob of butter (or melted butter, also tasty!) and lots of powdered sugar.
Notes
Buckwheat flour provides that authentic nutty poffertjes taste. But if you don't have buckwheat flour, you can also use regular flour!
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Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1
Amount Per ServingCalories 21724Total Fat 819gSaturated Fat 509gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 268gCholesterol 3421mgSodium 21854mgCarbohydrates 2138gFiber 6gSugar 36gProtein 1461g
This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix
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