Poffertjes
Little puffed buckwheat pancakes with butter and icing sugar
The smell of poffertjes drifts across every Dutch kermis (funfair), Christmas market and summer street festival, where they are flipped by the hundred on a cast-iron plate full of shallow hollows. They are tiny, puffy, yeasted pancakes made partly with buckwheat, served a dozen at a time on a cardboard dish with a slab of melting butter and a snowfall of icing sugar. At home you need a poffertjespan, a pan with small round dips; a Danish æbleskiver pan is too deep. Chef's tip: put the batter in a squeeze bottle or a piping bag; filling 30 hollows quickly by spoon is almost impossible, and the first ones burn while you fill the last.
- Total time
- 45 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Stir ¼ oz fast-action dried yeast and 1 tbsp caster sugar into 1 ¼ cups whole milk and leave for 5 minutes until a little foamy.
5 minStep 2: Whisk 5 ½ oz plain flour, 3 ½ oz buckwheat flour and ½ tsp salt in a bowl. Add the yeast milk and 1 egg and whisk to a smooth, thick batter, about like double cream. Cover and leave in a warm spot until bubbly and risen by half.
45 minStep 3: Heat the poffertjes pan over a medium heat and brush every hollow with some of 1 ⅜ oz butter. It is hot enough when a drop of batter sizzles at once.
Step 4: Pipe or spoon batter into each hollow, filling it just to the rim. Cook until the top is covered with small bubbles and the edges look dry, about 1 minute.
Step 5: Flip each one quickly with a fork or skewer. The usual mistake is a pan that is too hot: the outside browns in seconds while the middle stays raw. They should be golden on both sides and puffed in about 2 minutes in total.
2 minStep 6: Lift onto plates and repeat with the rest of the batter, brushing the pan again each round.
20 minStep 7: Serve at once, a dozen or so per plate, with a slab of 2 ⅛ oz butter on top and plenty of 4 tbsp icing sugar sifted over.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 470 kcal
- Protein
- 10 g
- Carbs
- 60 g
- Fat
- 21 g
- Fibre
- 3 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does poffertjes take?
- About 45 minutes in total: 15 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
- What can I use instead of fast-action dried yeast?
- Fresh yeast, three times the weight.
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