Poffertjes - Dutch Pancakes

Poffertjes – Dutch Pancakes

Who doesn’t love pancakes?

These little jewels are a perfect bite sized sweet delight.  Light, fluffy pancakes made from a combination of plain and buckwheat flour.  Typically served with icing sugar and butter in the Netherlands.  We ate them with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Method

1. Heat the milk until hand warm.  We popped in the microwave for 2 minutes at 600w.
2. Add the yeast to the warm milk and mix thoroughly.  Set aside for 10 mins.
3. Put both flours into a mixing bowl and a pinch of salt. Add the milk mixture and mix with a whisk or electric mixer.  We used our Thermomix.
4. Add the melted butter and maple syrup, or your preferred sweetener to the batter.  Mix again.
5. Beat the egg and add to the batter.  Mix until you have combined all ingredients and a smooth yet reasonably thick batter (it’s a bit thicker than regular pancakes or crepes).
6. Cover and set aside for a minimum of 1 hour in a warm place to let the yeast get working.  

To cook the Poffertjes

1. Setup your Egg for a direct cook at 160°C.
2. One your Egg has reached temperature, heat the pan in the egg.  Do not use until the pan is hot.
3. When the pan is hot, grease the pan liberally with butter or oil.  A pastry brush is perfect to ensure all the holes are well-greased.
4. Spoon or pipe the batter into each hole, no more than 3/4 full as they puff up.  We found using a squeezy bottle the most effective way to do this.
5. Take a look after a couple of minutes, you’re looking for holes to start appearing and the top is nearly dry.
6. Flip each pancake.  We used a wooden chopstick.
7. Cook for a further 2-3 mins until golden on the other side.
8. Remove from the Egg.  We tipped them into a large metal bowl so we could place them in a low oven while we made the next batch.
9. Serve by dusting with icing sugar.  In the Netherlands, they dot with butter, syrup, maple syrup, agave or runny honey.  We squeezed over some lemon and plan to try an apple compote next time.
10. Leftovers freeze well, apparently!

This recipe was enough for 3 batches of pancakes, approx 45 total.