If you have come across this receipe by searching for Poffertjes, you probably know what they are. If you are one of my regular readers from England or America you might not…
Let me tell you, they are one of the best things to come out of the Netherlands. Little doughy pancake bites, served with lashings of butter an icing sugar – what’s not to like!
Even though I’m not sure the Dutch would eat them for breakfast I think, if you eat pancakes for breakfast (and who of my readers does not) then you should have a Poffertjes breakfast too.
To make them you will need a special Poffertjes pan, which is a frying pan lots of little shallow indentations to bake the Poffertjes in. It also helps to have a plastic bottle with a big nozzle – even an empty squeezy ketchup bottle will work – to drop the right amount of dough into each little indentation.
This receipe makes loads of Poffertjes, serving at least 5 people.
You’ll need:
- 250g plain flour
- 1 egg
- 250ml milk, warm
- 250ml water
- 15g dry yeast (the one that comes in sachets, of which you’ll need a about 2 or 3 )
- 50g unsalted butter, melted
- a pinch of salt
To serve:
- icing sugar
- more unsalted butter
Dissolve the yeast in 3 tbsp of the warm milk, then add it to a big bowl with the flour, rest of the milk and water and whisk everything with an electric whisk to make a smooth liquid dough.
Add the egg, melted butter and pinch of salt and whisk again until all is incorporated.
Cover the bowl with a wet cloth and set aside for 30 minutes to allow the dough to rise.
Heat the Poffertjes pan and brush each dimple-like indentation with a little butter.
When the butter sizzles, drop small amounts of the dough in to the ‘dimples’.
Once the top side of the Poffertjes show tiny bubbles and start to go dry it’s time to turn them around (with the help of a small cake fork) so they can go golden brown on both sides. This only takes two minutes or so on each side.
Serve with a generous dusting of icing sugar and lots of butter that will melt all over the Poffertjes…delish!
