This is one of my favourite things to make on a Sunday morning when I want something special for breakfast/brunch, but don’t want to stand around making pancakes or waffles for an hour. There’s a long history behind Dutch Babies and their origins (which you can read about online if you wish), but today we’ll just skip that and get right to the good stuff.

Dutch Babies are typically made in big cast iron skillets or casserole dishes and are meant to serve a crowd, but for my purposes, I’ve scaled down my go-to recipe to result in a personal pan pancake that is super quick to mix up and only takes about 12 minutes to bake. I love to top mine with sliced berries and maple syrup and sometimes I also dust it with icing sugar and squeeze a little lemon wedge over top just so I have everything on. Occasionally a few dollops of Nutella make it on too!

You can also make a savoury version of this, just by leaving out the sugar and adding some freshly ground black pepper. Deb has ideas for toppings in the post, and she also has a recipe for one in Smitten Kitchen Everyday with creamy mushrooms and parm that I’ve tried and liked (although my brain was a little confused initially).

When it bakes, it billows and ruffles dramatically in the oven, and even though it starts to deflate as soon as it comes out, it’s still so pretty and of course, delicious.

Dutch Baby Pancake

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 tbsp butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar

+ sliced berries and maple syrup and/or icing sugar for dusting and lemon wedges for squeezing

Directions

  1. Turn oven on to 425, and set a 9″ cake pan inside while it preheats.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together really well, then add the flour and salt and whisk again until it’s as smooth as possible. Whisk in the milk, then the sugar.
  3. When the oven is fully heated, remove the cake pan and add the butter. It’ll sizzle and start to melt right away. Roll the butter around the bottom and up the sides of the pan so the entire surface is coated in butter.
  4. Add the pancake batter and bake for 12-13 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the centre is just starting to get some colour.
  5. Loosen the pancake gently with a spatula and slide it onto a plate. Top with berries and a drizzle of maple syrup, and sometimes I also dust it with icing sugar and squeeze a lemon wedge over top.