Dutch baby: one giant pancake that rises in the oven
A pancake that is neither fried nor flipped — a thin batter is poured into a screaming hot pan and put in the oven, where within minutes it climbs the sides to the height of your hand. There is no raising agent: it is lifted by steam alone, which makes three things matter — the batter must be very thin, the ingredients at room temperature, and the pan genuinely hot.
Your own work in that: 2 min.
- Batter 17 min
- The pan 2 min
- Baking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneBlend the batter and rest it
Put all the batter ingredients in a blender and blend 30 seconds, until completely smooth and very thin — like single cream. Leave 15 minutes at room temperature; meanwhile the oven and pan heat up (next step).
Ingredients: 3 pcs eggs · 150 ml milk · 90 g plain flour · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · ¼ tsp salt
TipCold eggs and milk are a common cause of a flat pancake. Cold batter poured into a hot pan drops its temperature and the steam never forms fast enough.
Very thin, then a quarter hour's restHeat the pan in the oven
As soon as the batter is blended, put a 24 cm cast-iron pan in the oven and heat both together to 220 °C for 15 minutes. The pan must be hot right through, not only underneath — its thermal mass is what causes the violent evaporation when the batter goes in.
Fifteen minutes; the pan heats with the ovenMelt the butter and pour
Take the pan out with oven gloves (the handle is scorching), add the butter and swirl it over the base and sides. The moment it stops foaming, pour in all the batter in one movement and return the pan to the oven at once.
Ingredients: 40 g butter
TipLess than <b>thirty seconds</b> should pass between the pan leaving the oven and going back in. Every second is degrees lost, and with them the height of the pancake.
Butter, batter in one go, straight back inBake and don't open the door
Bake 20 minutes at 220 °C. The pancake climbs the sides of the pan and forms an irregular, crisp bowl with deep golden edges. Don't open the oven for the first 15 minutes — the drop in temperature can stop the rise, and once it sinks it will not recover.
Twenty minutes, door shutServe immediately
Take it out and serve straight away, in the pan. It collapses within a minute, which is normal and indeed the point: the hollow that forms is where the icing sugar, lemon juice and fruit go. Cut it in wedges like a pizza.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp icing sugar · 1 pcs lemon · 150 g raspberries
It sinks in a minute; the hollow holds the rest
Before you start
Savoury version
Leave out the sugar, add a handful of grated parmesan and pepper to the batter, and once baked top it with ham, rocket and a fried egg. Same technique, entirely different dish.
Without a cast-iron pan
Any ovenproof dish 24 cm across works, as long as it is heated with the oven. Heatproof glass performs worse than metal, since it gives up its heat more slowly.
Why it didn't rise
Three causes, in this order: ingredients too cold, batter too thick, or the pan not hot enough. Opening the oven is fourth, but equally effective at ruining it.
Where the name comes from
Nothing to do with the Netherlands — the name is credited to Manca's restaurant in Seattle in the early twentieth century, and "Dutch" is probably a corruption of "deutsch". Its ancestors are German oven-baked pancakes.
