Poffertjes are very famous in the Netherlands and are also called Dutch mini pancakes. I have the perfect easy poffertjes recipe for you to make at home. You probably already have the ingredients, so you can get started right away.
I don’t eat them very often, but I absolutely love them. I’m talking about poffertjes, of course. Delicious little fluffy pancakes with a bit of a spongy texture. Serve with a some powdered sugar and a small knob of butter, the best way you can eat them. It’s a traditional Dutch treat, loved by many.
My mom used to bake poffertjes for us to eat during school vacations. I recently bought a cast-iron poffertjes pan so that I could make them at home, and so today I am sharing the basic recipe for traditional Dutch poffertjes with you!
TIP: Do you love Dutch recipes? Here you can find all of my Dutch baking recipes.
Someone once asked me if you could compare poffertjes to American pancakes, but I think these are two total different things. I see them as two total different recipes.
If you go to a market, fair or theme park you’ll definitely find a stand where they make fresh poffertjes. It’s popular street food in the Netherlands.
You’ll get a small paper plate with a portion of poffertjes and they will do some generous dusting with icing sugar. They’ll serve a wooden fork with the poffertjes to enjoy them.
Some stands will have a place to sit, in those cases you’ll get a proper plate and cutlery instead of the paper one.
Some recipes call for yeast, but I have never used yeast in my batter for mini Dutch pancakes. So, my recipe does not call for yeast.
Originally, poffertjes were made with yeast, but you can make incredibly delicious poffertjes with baking powder! By using baking powder, you don’t have to wait for the batter to rise, you can start baking right away.
Also, I find that many home bakers find the use of yeast a barrier, so it is just as easy to replace it with baking powder. So you can make them just fine with yeast, but in this article I share a recipe for poffertjes without yeast (with baking powder).
For poffertjes, you’ll need a special poffertjes pan. Personally, I have a special cast iron pan at home that I find the easiest to work with. I use a chunk of butter, prick it with a fork, and use it to grease the pan each time I bake. You can also use a brush and melted butter, but make sure the brush can withstand the heat. I made a mistake about that once 😉 .
There are also electric pans, the advantage of which is that they already have a non-stick coating. You also don’t have to work as fast as you would with a cast iron pan. It’s a bit easier if you make poffertjes for the first time.
Both are good options, it really just depends on where your personal preference lies.
There is only one traditional way to serve these little pancakes: with icing sugar and a small cube of butter. But it’s totally fine if you like to vary a bit. You could add some cinnamon to the icing sugar for example, you’ll really enjoy it. You could also serve them with Dutch stroop or maple syrup.
I once served my poffertjes with icing sugar and fresh fruit and made skewers out of them. They were a big hit!
Things I never tried, but know for sure are delicious:
TIP: We have another traditional pancake recipe in the Netherlands: thin pancakes. I of course share my recipe for traditional Dutch thin pancakes, but also share a lot of other tips and tricks.
You can replace the all purpose flour with buckwheat flour. The batter could be a bit thicker, so feel free to add a little more milk if needed.
Replace the milk by almond milk or oatmilk. And don’t forget to use margarine or another kind of dairy free butter.
Of course, apart from poffertjes, I have a soft spot for all pancakes! Make sure to check out a few favorites below:
Theoretically you can bake them in a pan, the taste will be no less. Of course, they will not have the usual shape of poffertjes.
If you want to make poffertjes in a normal frying pan, just melt some butter and use a piping bag or squeeze bottle to drop small amounts of batter in the pan. They will look like small and flat mini pancakes, but should taste just as good.
I use a cast iron poffertjes pan, which can be used on any heat source. There are also electric poffertjes pans, but I haven’t used those myself before.
No, I would not do that (considering the effect of the baking powder). It is better to bake all the poffertjes and heat them up the next day (or freeze them) or make the batter again.
It’s possible that you baked them too long, which causes the poffertjes to dry out. It could also be that you need to grease the poffertjes pan with a little more butter.
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This was possible the worst recipe I’ve every tried. The pancakes were thick, heavy and uncooked. Honestly don’t even waste your ingredients on this
He Saara. Did you make them into ‘poffertjes’? If seems strange that they came out so bad to be honest. I wonder what went wrong there.
I’m surprised by the other comment on here, I love this recipe! Previously I was using a recipe with yeast that I loved but it takes a long time to make the poffertjes which doesn’t always work for my family. When we need to make them faster, I use this no yeast recipe. I do make them in a poffertjes pan, I wonder if the previous commenter did not use one?
Thanks so much Briana! Love that it works so well for you. And it’s very well possible that the other commenter didn’t use the right pan (or something else went wrong… 🙂
Hi, my poffertjes stuck to the poffetjes cast iron pan – I couldn’t flip them as they had stuck to bottom. What went wrong? Thanks
Sorry to hear that! With cast iron it is very important to let the pan heat sufficiently before adding the batter. Also make sure to use enough oil or butter to grease the pan. I find that sometimes the issue with the batter sticking is due to the pan either being damaged or not entirely clean. It can be little things, but overall cast iron should work great with poffertjes. Hope this helps!
Ciao! Ricetta meravigliosa! Ho assaggiato questa delizia in un altro secolo e comprai la famosa piastra in ghisa ad Amsterdam. Ogni tanto provo e fallisco. Anche questa volta qualcosa è andato storto… aiutami! Il lievito è quello per dolci o per lievito di birra istantaneo?
Hi Monica,
My Italian is not that great but if the question is if the rising agent is baking powder or yeast. The answer is that you will need to use baking powder. There is no yeast in this recipe. I had chat gpt translate it for me in Italian. Not sure if it makes sense but this is the Italian answer “Il mio italiano non è un granché, ma se la domanda è se l’agente lievitante sia il lievito per dolci o il lievito di birra, la risposta è: devi usare il lievito per dolci. In questa ricetta non c’è il lievito di birra.”
Grazie mille! Chat gpt ha fatto bene il lavoro! Oggi non riesco ma domani ci riprovo con la tua ricetta e i tuoi consigli. Grazie!
Not sure what that other person was talking about but mine turned out great! I added some Vanilla essence but otherwise followed the recipe… thanks. Took pictures but can’t upload them
Thanks so much Lauren! Glad yours turned out so good!