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The best weekend breakfast, snack or dessert you can ask for – Poffertjes! Grab 7 ingredients, and you’ll have a stack of Dutch mini pancakes piling on your plate in no time.
Table of contents
- Why We Love This
- What are Dutch Mini Pancakes?
- Best Pans to Cook Poffertjes:
- What You’ll Need
- How to make Poffertjes:
- Wandercook’s Tips
- FAQs
- Variations
Why We Love This
If you love fluffy pancakes, then this is the perfect Saturday morning treat for you and the family!
The recipe is a meal prep win for us: Poffertjes batter can be made the night before and stored in the fridge, batch cooked to double or even triple the amount AND frozen for up to two months.
Related: Lemon Ricotta Cake / Matcha Pancakes / Epic Pancake Recipes
What are Dutch Mini Pancakes?
Dutch mini pancakes, known as Poffertjes (pronounced poff-er-chuss), are a popular street food snack. You’ll often find a stall roaming the markets in Amsterdam, Netherlands – especially at the popular Albert Cuyp Market. Made at home, they’re usually eaten at breakfast, as a snack or served for dessert.
Fun fact: Poffertjes are also known in some areas of Indonesia due to their ties with Dutch heritage, but sold under the name Kue Cubit.
Best Pans to Cook Poffertjes:
Most Traditional
Poffertjespan (Poffertjes Pan) or Aebleskiver Pan
Whether you get a cast iron poffertjes pan, an aebleskiver pan or even an electric one, these will give you the best and most authentic result.
Easiest & Cheapest
Regular Frying Pan with or without Egg Rings
For those not wanting to purchase anything new, make your mini pancakes in a regular frying pan. You can even use egg rings to make it even easier for yourself – similar to if you were making crumpets!
Great Alternatives
Takoyaki Pan or Cake Pop Maker
If you already have a takoyaki pan or cake pop pan, these will work great. The only difference is, they will be a little more rounded (more like aebleskiver), but otherwise cook fine.
What You’ll Need
- Flour – For our recipe, we’ve made it easy by using plain all purpose flour. Sub with more traditional buckwheat flour, or use half and half! You can also use gluten-free flour just as you would for regular pancakes.
- Instant Yeast – Instant yeast is simple to work with – just pop it in the mix and let time work it’s magic. The warm milk is what helps to activate the yeast quicker.
- Milk – Using regular milk, you want it to be quite warm – more than luke warm but less than boiling (as that kills the yeast). Sub with almond milk, soy milk or oat milk.
- Sugar – Sugar is used to give a nice sweetness to the batter. Use regular sugar or sub with brown or raw.
- Egg – Regular large chicken eggs work well, although we hear duck eggs give a lovely result too!
Topping or Stuffing ideas
- Powdered Sugar and Butter
- Jam
- Speculoos Spread
- Apple Slices
- Nutella
- Cream Cheese
How to make Poffertjes:
- In a large mixing bowl, add theflour,sugarandyeast, giving it a quick mix and making a well in the centre.
- Pour in thewarmed milkandegg, then whisk into a batter. Cover with a tea towel or silicone bowl cover, and leave to rise for an hour. The batter should be double in size and look very bubbly when ready.Note: If in a colder climate, allow extra time and pop the bowl in a warm location.
- Grease a poffertjes pan or frying pan with thebutterover a medium heat. Once warmed, add heaped tablespoons of batter into each well in the poffertjes pan. Make sure to leave space if using a frying pan.
- Once bubbles start to pop on top (1-2 minutes), flip using a single chopstick or skewer (similar to makingtakoyaki). Allow to cook for another minute or two, once puffed up and cooked through, then remove from the pan. Repeat until all batter is used up.
- Serve while hot, sprinklingicing sugar / powdered sugarover the top to dust.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Milk Temperature – Hot milk will kill yeast, so make sure you don’t boil it when heating!
- Storage – Will keep up to a week in the fridge in an airtight container, or up to two months in the freezer.
FAQs
What’s the difference between aebleskiver and poffertjes?
There are a few main differences between the two. Poffertjes uses yeast as the leavener, while aebleskiver uses baking powder and buttermilk. Danish aebleskiver can be more round in shape than flatter Dutch mini pancakes. FInally, aebleskiver can sometimes be spiced and stuffed with apple!
How do you eat Poffertjes?
Poffertjes are often served simple – dusted with powdered sugar and a dob of butter.
Can you make poffertjes without a pan?
Yes! You can easily cook them as mini pancakes on any frying pan or hot plate. Use a heaped tablespoon for one, and leave room between each of them as they will flatten and expand slightly.
Can you make poffertjes without yeast?
Technically yes, although if you swap out the yeast for baking powder or self-raising flour, you’re then making Danish aebleskiver instead!
Variations
- Skip Warming The Milk – This will make the batter just rise slower, so allow 1.5 – 2 hours instead for the rise.
- Make them More Traditional – Use half or all buckwheat flour for an even more authentic taste!
- Make Vegan Poffertjes – Swap the egg for 1/4 cup of mushed banana, applesauce or vegetable oil, and the milk for almond or oat milk.
Amp up your weekend breakfast with these next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
5 from 29 votes
Simple Poffertjes – Dutch Mini Pancakes
Prep 5 minutes minutes
Cook 10 minutes minutes
Rising Time 1 hour hour
Servings 40 Poffertjes
The best weekend breakfast, snack or dessert you can ask for – Poffertjes! Grab 7 ingredients, and you’ll have a stack of Dutch mini pancakes piling on your plate in no time.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups milk 375ml / 12.68floz very warm but not hot (1 1/2 minutes on high in microwave), sub oat or almond milk
- 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast 7g slightly heaped
- 2 cups plain flour / all purpose flour 280g / 9.87oz sub buckwheat flour or half and half
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp butter 25g, softened or melted to grease pan
- 1/2 tbsp icing sugar / powdered sugar to dust
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar and yeast, giving it a quick mix and making a well in the centre.
2 cups plain flour / all purpose flour, ¼ cup sugar, 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
Pour in the warmed milk and egg, then whisk into a batter. Cover with a tea towel or silicone bowl cover, and leave to rise for an hour. The batter should be double in size and look very bubbly when ready. Note: If in a colder climate, allow extra time and pop the bowl in a warm location.
1 1/2 cups milk, 1 egg
Grease a poffertjes pan or frying pan with the butter over a medium heat. Once warmed, add heaped tablespoons of batter into each well in the poffertjes pan. Make sure to leave space if using a frying pan.
2 tbsp butter
Once bubbles start to pop on top (1-2 minutes), flip using a single chopstick or skewer (similar to making takoyaki). Allow to cook for another minute or two, once puffed up and cooked through, then remove from the pan. Repeat until all batter is used up.
Serve while hot, sprinkling icing sugar / powdered sugar over the top to dust.
1/2 tbsp icing sugar / powdered sugar
Video
Notes
- Milk Temperature – Hot milk will kill yeast, so make sure you don’t boil it when heating!
- Storage – Will keep up to a week in the fridge in an airtight container, or up to two months in the freezer.
- Skip Warming The Milk – This will make the batter just rise slower, so allow 1.5 – 2 hours instead for the rise.
- Make Vegan Poffertjes – Swap the egg for 1/4 cup of mushed banana, applesauce or vegetable oil, and the milk for almond or oat milk.
- Topping Ideas – Powdered sugar, butter, jam, speculoos spread, apple slices, nutella or cream cheese.
