A Dutch baby pancake, sometimes called a German pancake, a Bismarck, a Dutch puff, Hooligan, or a Hootenanny, is a dish that is similar to a large

Yorkshire pudding Yorkshire pudding is a baked pudding made from a batter of eggs, flour, and milk or water. A common English side dish, it is a versatile food that can be served in numerous ways depending on its ingredients, size, and the accompanying compone ...

. Unlike most

pancake A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...

s, Dutch babies are baked in the oven, rather than being fried. They are generally thicker than most pancakes and contain no chemical leavening ingredients such as

baking powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increas ...

. They can be sweet or savory and can be served at any meal. The idea of a Dutch baby pancake may have been derived from the German '' Pfannkuchen'', but the current form originated in the US in the early 1900s.

Ingredients and preparation

It is made with

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

, and usually seasoned with

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

and

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

, although occasionally fruit or another flavoring is also added. A basic batter incorporates a third of a cup of flour and a third of a cup of milk per two eggs. It is baked in a hot

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

or metal pan and falls (deflates) soon after being removed from the oven. It is generally served with freshly squeezed lemon, butter, and

powdered sugar Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar and icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains between 2% and 5% of an anti-caking agent—such as corn starch, potato ...

, fruit toppings or

syrup In cooking, syrup (less commonly sirup; from ; , beverage, wine and ) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a Solution (chemistry), solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but ...

Serving

It can be served for breakfast,

brunch Brunch is a meal, often accompanied by "signature morning cocktails" such as mimosas, bloody marys, espresso martinis, and bellinis, taken sometime in the late morning or early afternoon – the universally accepted time is 11am-2pm, though mod ...

, lunch, dessert, and even for "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). Dutch baby pancakes are generally served immediately upon removal from the oven. The Dutch baby is a specialty of some

diner A diner is a type of restaurant found across the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Western Europe and Australia. Diners offer a wide range of cuisine, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...

s and chains that specialize in breakfast dishes, such as the

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

-founded The Original Pancake House or the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

–based chain Bickford's, which makes both a plain Dutch baby and a similar pancake known as the Baby Apple, which contains apple slices embedded in the pancake.

History

According to ''Sunset'' magazine, Dutch babies were introduced in the first half of the 1900s at Manca's Cafe, a family-run restaurant that was located in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, and that was owned by Victor Manca. While these pancakes are derived from the German pancake dish, it is said that the name Dutch baby was coined by one of Victor Manca's daughters, where "Dutch" perhaps was her corruption of the German

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

''deutsch''. Manca's Cafe claimed that it owned the trademark for Dutch babies in 1942.

Similar dishes

A Dutch baby is a type of popover, although popovers are generally baked as smaller, individual pieces, approximately the size of a muffin. A Dutch baby is very similar to a

, with a few differences: the Yorkshire pudding is more likely to be baked in individual servings, the pan is usually greased with beef drippings, and the result is rarely sweet. Dutch babies are larger, use butter rather than beef fat, and are frequently sweet. They use more eggs than a Yorkshire pudding and normally have sugar and vanilla and, unlike a Yorkshire pudding, are normally cooked in a cast-iron frying pan.

David Eyre's pancake

A "David Eyre's pancake" is a variation on the Dutch baby pancake named after the American writer and editor David W. Eyre (1912–2008). The recipe was published by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Food Editor

Craig Claiborne Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 January 22, 2000) was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for ''The New York Times'', he was also the author of numerous cookbooks ...

in an April 10, 1966, Times article entitled "Pancake Nonpareil"; in addition to generally regularizing quantities and temperatures for modern use, it omitted sugar and salt from the batter. In the article, Claiborne recounted discovering the dish at a breakfast prepared by Eyre, then the editor of ''Honolulu'' magazine, while Claiborne was visiting Eyre's Honolulu home. Eyre's version of the pancake was based on a recipe for Dutch baby pancakes from Victor Hirtzler's ''Hotel St. Francis Cookbook''—the best-known 1919 edition—with slight alteration. The recipe also appears in '' The Essential New York Times Cookbook'', whose author, longtime food writer Amanda Hesser, counts it among her favorites. She names it as one of the top five recipes recommended to her for inclusion when she set out to write the book.

References

External links

Alton Brown's recipe for Dutch Baby pancake

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/magazine/25food.txt.html New York Times recipe for David Eyre's pancake
Amanda Hesser demonstrates cooking a David Eyre's pancake
{{Puddings Puddings Cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch American pancakes Custard desserts