American · Breakfast

Dutch Baby Pancake

A single enormous pancake that climbs the sides of a screaming-hot skillet in the oven and collapses within a minute of coming out. Ten minutes of work and it looks like an hour.

32 min total Serves 4 servings Easy
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Dutch Baby Pancake

Photograph credit: Cast iron dutch baby on oven mitts by Taylorderek · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

How to Make Dutch Baby Pancake

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  1. Put a 26 cm cast-iron or heavy ovenproof frying pan on the middle shelf and heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F. Give it a full 20 minutes — the pan needs to be as hot as the oven, not just in it.

  2. Blend the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and nutmeg for 30 seconds until completely smooth and slightly foamy. Leave the batter to stand while the pan heats.

  3. Take the hot pan out, drop in the butter and swirl it as it melts and foams — it should sizzle hard and brown at the edges.

  4. Pour the batter into the middle of the pan in one go and return it to the oven immediately.

  5. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, without opening the door at any point, until it has climbed the sides and the edges are deep brown and crisp.

  6. Take it straight to the table. It will begin to sink within a minute and that is expected.

  7. Dust with icing sugar, squeeze lemon over and scatter with berries.

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Notes for Getting It Right

  • Twenty minutes of preheating for the pan, not five. This is the whole recipe.
  • Do not open the oven. The rise is steam and steam escapes.
  • For a savoury one, drop the sugar and vanilla and add grated Gruyère and thyme to the batter.

What to Serve with Dutch Baby Pancake

  • Crisp bacon
  • Strong coffee
  • A pot of jam

Keeping and Reheating

Eat immediately. It does not keep, reheat or forgive delay.

Dutch Baby Pancake Nutrition

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.

362Calories
12gProtein
38gCarbs
18gFat
2gFibre
18gSugar
550mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .