Pannenkoek {Dutch Pancakes}

Start your morning right with a Pannenkoek, a traditional Dutch pancake. These pannenkoeken are easily made with just a small handful of pantry staples. Nothing beats homemade pancakes!

Easy Pannenkoek Recipe

Breakfast…it’s the most important meal of the day, right? Well, I choose to start mine with this Dutch pannenkoek recipe. And you will, too, once you try them.

We looooove pancakes for breakfast, just check out these cinnamon swirl pancakes. The fun part about making pannenkoek is that you can customize them any way you want by adding in your favorite toppings while cooking them and can make them savory or sweet pancakes. If you like you could make them more savory to serve for lunch or dinner.

More on that later!

Dutch pancake houses, or pannenkoekenhuizen are where you want to go if you want to go get pannenkoek (plural pannenkoeken) and sometimes it is referred to as a pannekoek.

It is very common for pancake houses to have a wide variety of toppings to add to your pancakes (even pizza flavors like oregano and salami). The pannenkoek pronunciation is pan un cook, so that you sound like you know what you are talking about when ordering them.

Or skip the embarrassment (and the trip all the way to Amsterdam), and just make them at home with this easy recipe!

In case you are wondering if this Dutch pancake is the same thing as a Dutch baby. It’s actually not the same thing. And, in fact, the Dutch baby isn’t even Dutch at all, it originated in Germany. An American restaurant owner’s daughter mistook the word “Deutsch” (which is what German people call themselves) for “Dutch” and the rest is history!

Pannenkoeken are made with simple pantry ingredients like flour, milk, salt, and eggs, you definitely have these ingredients on hand. So what are you waiting for? Go make some Dutch pancakes!

What is Pannenkoek?

Pannenkoek originated in the Netherlands and it translates into the word “pancake” in English. While you may be picturing a big fluffy stack of thick pancakes, pannenkoek is actually a flat cake make from a very thin batter.

The Dutch pancake is normally pretty big in size as it comes out the size of the whole pan it is cooked in. The pancakes end up much thinner than an American pancake, but not as thin as French crepes.

But, they are eaten similarly to a crepe. Which means they get topped with whatever your heart desires (some ideas are below), rolled up and either eaten with the hands or utensils.

Traditionally, the pancakes were made from at least 50% buckwheat flour, but is not as common today. It is totally an option if you want to make them a bit healthier.

What do Dutch Pancakes taste like?

Pannenkoeken by itself doesn’t have a lot of flavor. It’s not bad, just a little simple. It actually tastes like buttered pasta without sauce to me. The pancakes basically take on whatever flavors you add to them. Add a little sugar and cinnamon into the batter if you are going to be serving them with sweet toppings.

What to put on Pannenkoek?

Here is where the pannenkoek is similar to American pancakes. Pancakes are normally served with butter and a healthy dose of syrup. The Dutch like to use treacle, which is a syrup made with sugar beets or appelstroop, an apple butter made without spices. Icing sugar, a combination of powdered sugar and milk may also be used.

Or just keep it simple and add a sprinkling of powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, some jam or jelly, cinnamon whipped cream or hazelnut spread.

The pancakes can also be topped with fruit like very thinly sliced apples, raisins, or cherries.

If you want a savory pannenkoek, you can use meats or cheese on the pancake. Just make sure that whatever meat you use like ham or bacon is already cooked. There won’t be enough time to fully cook the meat on the pancake.

After the batter has been poured into the pan, let it cook a little then add thinly sliced cooked meats to the top. Then flip over and continue cooking.

You can always serve them as sweet and savory with a combination like fruit and cheese, also.

What are sides to serve with Pannenkoek?

We like to eat our Dutch pancakes with a variety of side dishes. Eat them with whatever you normally eat with your favorite breakfast foods.

We like them with eggs made any way you like them (scrambled eggs, over easy eggs, or boiled eggs), fresh fruit, sausage, turkey bacon, breakfast potatoes, crispy crowns, juice, coffee, or a fruit smoothie.

Recipe Ingredients

Here are the basic ingredients needed to make Dutch pannenkoek. Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this blog post for ingredient amounts.

• Eggs: Two large eggs.
• Oil: Use a good vegetable oil, I use extra virgin olive oil.
• Milk: Non-dairy milk can be substituted.
• Salt: Only a pinch of salt is needed.
• Flour: All purpose flour is what I use because it’s what I normally have on hand. You can use self rising flour or a mixture of both. Can use up to 50% of buckwheat flour. Or use patent flour like cake flour.
• Butter or oil: Is used to grease the pan.

How to Make Pannenkoek

These are the basic instructions of how to make Dutch pancakes. For full instructions, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

STEP 1: In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk or fork. Whisk in the milk. Slowly add in flour, whisking continuously. The batter should be very smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside on counter for at least 30 minutes.

STEP 2: Once 30 minutes is up, put a 10-12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add the butter or oil to the skillet.

STEP 3: Scoop about 1/2 cup of batter into the pan. Tilt the pan around to coat the entire bottom of the pan with a very thin layer of batter. Add toppings like ham, cheese or cooked bacon now.

STEP 4: Flip over the pancake once it starts to look dry on top, after about 2-3 minutes. Continue cooking for 1-2 minutes until the pancake is golden brown on both sides. Continue this process with all of the batter.

STEP 5: Serve with toppings.

Recipe Tips & Variations

• Let batter rest. Make sure to let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before making pancakes for best results.
• Make them lactose free. Substitute the milk out for a lactose free version. Oat milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk or cashew milk would all work really well.
• Cinnamon & sugar. You can add cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon) or sugar (2 teaspoons) to the pancake batter.
• Warm or cold. Serve them warm or cold for breakfast, a snack, lunch, or dinner.
• Flour. Substitute up to 50% of the flour for buckwheat flour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are pannenkoeken healthy? This pannenkoek recipe isn’t really considered healthy, but as I always say everything is welcomed when consumed in moderation.

Storage Instructions

How to refrigerate pannenkoek? Let the pancakes cool and put in an airtight container. They should last about 5-6 days in the fridge.

How do you reheat pannenkoek? Heat leftover pancakes in the microwave for 30-45 seconds and then 10 second intervals until heated through.

Try these other breakfast recipes!

• Rhubarb Scones
• Bakery Style Strawberries Muffins
• Simple French Toast
• Lemon Smoothie
• Omelet in a Mug
• Air Fryer Toast

If you’ve tried this pannenkoek recipe, don’t forget to give me a star rating and leave me a comment below in the comment section. I love to hear from people who have made my recipes!

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