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.
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 / Pain d’Epices Spice Cake
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 or an electric ones, 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 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 the flour, sugar and yeast, giving it a quick mix and making a well in the centre.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
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!
Poffertjes are often served simple – dusted with powdered sugar and a dob of butter.
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.
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!
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
Recipe 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.
Nutrition
16 Comments
Martha
17/03/2023 at 10:52 pmHi, can we use coconut milk in place of regular milk? Anybody tried this? Thanks , love poffertjes. Sadly you won’t find the stalls anywhere in Amsterdam anymore. Except Albert Kuyp market maybe. Little restaurant behind the big store not too far from Central Station. Was there 6 WK’s ago. 🥶
Wandercooks
19/03/2023 at 9:15 pmHey Martha! Thanks for the heads up on the stalls. That’s sad to hear, but looks like you’re right about Albert Kuyp market poffertjes.
I think coconut milk should work, we’ll trial it on our next batch. Let us know how you go if you try it in the meantime too. 🙂
kahlia
06/03/2023 at 9:19 amhi girl!!! how ,many does this recipe typically make? asking for a friend!!
Wandercooks
06/03/2023 at 10:36 amHey Kahlia, it’ll be around 40 if you’re making them at the small poffertjes size. 🙂
Linda
26/12/2022 at 4:08 amAdded 0.5g saffron and called them a christmas treat. Saffron is often used as a “christmas-spice” in Sweden.
Family loved them!
Wandercooks
30/12/2022 at 9:05 amHey Linda, thanks for the tip about the saffron, that sounds lovely. We’ll have to give it a try next Christmas. 😉
Valentine
10/09/2022 at 4:20 pmI left the batter overnight & cooked it in the morning. But i think the yeast is too much, the taste was like a fermented cassava. I’ll make it again but with less yeast. Thanks for the recipe.
Wandercooks
11/09/2022 at 11:26 amHey Valentine, you’re welcome. 🙂 It sounds like you may have over-proofed the batter though. It is only meant to be proofed for one hour, not overnight. It will still have a slightly yeasty taste, but it definitely shouldn’t be overpowering like fermented cassava! Let us know how you go on the next batch and happy cooking!
Amy
30/06/2022 at 11:28 amI followed this recipe exact and my batter turned out really thick like a bread dough, not like in your video where it was more runny like a pancake batter. How can I make it thinner?
Wandercooks
30/06/2022 at 12:03 pmEasy fix! It’s most likely not enough milk, so I’d keep adding more until you get to the runnier batter you’re after and that should be fixed :). Then cover and let it sit and go super bubbly! Only thing I can think of for the difference is it may be AU vs US cup sizes perhaps, if you didn’t go by mls or floz.
Rose Wilson
27/12/2021 at 3:44 amThe recipe worked really well. The taste was authentic and the results were delicious.
Wandercooks
02/01/2022 at 5:41 pmThis is great Rose, thanks so much for letting us know!
Margaret Manning
14/11/2021 at 4:50 pmVery successful. Thankyou.
Wandercooks
15/11/2021 at 9:46 amFantastic! Thanks for letting us know, and hope you enjoyed every bite!
Kimmie
03/09/2022 at 5:40 pmGreat recipe ! Can I still store it in the fridge if it’s already been left out to rise for 1 hour ? And does it need to left out ti rise again after refrigerating ?
Wandercooks
04/09/2022 at 5:17 pmHey Kimmie, that should be fine to pop it in the fridge after allowing to rise. You should also be able to cook straight away when you’re ready to make them, and not have to rise it any more. Let us know how you go!