There’s a weekend breakfast that makes all four of my kids cheer: Dutch baby. A cross between a giant pancake and a souffle, a Dutch baby’s packed with protein (thank you eggs!) and takes about 3 minutes to prep (you too, blender!).
We serve ours hot out of the oven, slathered in apple butter , a SUPER EASY fruit topping, or dusted with powdered sugar (below). Then we serve ourselves again. A Dutch Baby is definitely a seconds-friendly breakfast.
Now a note about size. Since there are four rascals at my house, whose appetites seem to have the Hulk-like powers to double every Saturday morning, this recipe isn’t just a Dutch Baby. It’s a Big Dutch Baby.
I’ve been working on this recipe for months now, tweaking, baking, tweaking, baking again.
And here’s the winner.
The most delicious Dutch Baby I’ve made so far, the one that feeds a crowd.
How to Make a Big Dutch Baby
It’s actually VERY easy to put together.
Melt the butter.
Start with by putting your pan, along with a stick of butter, in the oven as it preheats. You’ll melt the butter, heat your pan and warm the oven all in one step. For this Big Dutch Baby recipe, I use the giant Le Creuset “braising” pan I got in my pre-kid days (with a pre-kid budget), but it’s similar to this much more affordable one by Rachel Ray, which also comes in a handy 2-pack.
Blend the batter.
Otherwise it’s all about the blender. Beat your eggs in the blender until they double in volume. Then add everything else. Pulse again.
Combine the batter and melted butter.
About this time your butter will be melted–or close to it. Moving quickly, pour the WHOLE blender mixture into the hot pan. Careful!
Bake.
Then bake for 22 minutes. I know, it’s specific, but this works perfectly with my pan, in my oven. Yours make be 20 or 25. But I’ll tell you this: it’ll be awesome.
But 22 minutes is VERY long in kid time. My rascals make noises about possibly fainting between the time the Big Dutch Baby goes into the oven and comes out, so I serve up a bunch of fruit. Not too much though. The last thing you want is full tummies when this thing hits the table.
That’ll spoil the fun.
Important: serve with your big Dutch baby immediately!
Now this part’s important: Serve your Dutch Baby immediately! Like a souffle, it’ll fall quickly. And that’s fine. But it’s also great to have the kids near the oven (but you know, not too near) because there’s a bit of theatre going on here. Expect ooohs and aaaahs.
Then empty plates.
And requests to make another Big Dutch Baby again next weekend.
While the Dutch Baby cooks, you can make a fresh berry syrup in minutes — with frozen berries!
Big Dutch Baby, the Weekend Breakfast Our Kids Love
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 1/3 cup flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Place butter in a large round pan and put it in the oven as it heats.
- Meanwhile, crack 6 eggs into a blender and beat until they double in size, about 2 minutes.
- Add the milk, vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar and pulse a few times.
- Add the flour and mix for 1 minute.
- Retrieve the HOT pan from the oven and pour the ENTIRE blender batter into it, carefully.
- Quickly return the pan to the oven and cook for 22 minutes. (This is the perfect amount of time in my oven; yours may require a couple less or more.)
Notes
Updated: I used to pour the melted butter into the blender batter but on a tip from an awesome reader, I started doing it this way and it’s awesome. You don’t need butter to serve it with AND it never sticks. Enjoy!
p.s. Want more delicious ideas your family will love? Try these favorites:
- The World’s Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
- Healthy Double Chocolate Muffins (with 5 Kinds of Fruit & Veggies Inside)
- One-Bowl Chocolate Cake from Scratch
What are the approximate dimensions of your pan? Closest thing I have is my large cast-iron skillet. :-/
Actually, I might have a couple other things that will work, but not sure.
Hi Melissa! My pan is about 12 inches in diameter, 5 inches tall. You could certainly try a Dutch oven though. That’s what my mom used when I was growing up, and I assume the recipe was very close to this. I’d adjust the cooking time and temp to 425 and cook for a few extra minutes. It’ll just be taller and thicker! Report back on how it goes?
Thanks! I have a Dutch oven that should work (love that thing)! I have all of the ingredients so maybe this will be breakfast tomorrow. Otherwise, we’ll try it next weekend.
P.S. Dinner tonight was honey mustard chicken. Yum!
So good. The 6yo wouldn’t stop raving about it. We actually had it for dinner last night. It was so much more filling than I expected. Thumbs up from everyone.
I did end up making it in my Dutch oven. I cooked it at 425 like you suggested for about 27 minutes I think.
One question, though: It stuck to the dish like crazy. Any thoughts on what I might have done “wrong” and how to fix it?
I have used a similar recipe for about 25 years and the greatest difference is that mine calls for just pouring the batter into the melted butter in the pan. It kind of swims in the butter and never sticks. Most other recipes I’ve seen do the same. I make mine in a 9×13 pan.
That sounds smart, Corrin! I’m going to try it and if we get success, I’ll update this recipe. Thanks so much!
Is this like a pancake? Or dessert?
Pancake! Not a dessert but it’s a lovely big breakfast.
My church cooks breakfast for people down on their luck. We typically serve 25 to 50 people, with enough for seconds. We try to make a different breakfast (of sorts) each Sunday. Could this breakfast entree be prepared in a 12″ by 24″ serving pan that is around 8″ deep? If yes, how would the recipe scale up?
Mike I love that so much. I don’t think this is a good contender for that because it deflates quickly and won’t be as special if when you’re serving a large crowd. However, our Baked French Toast or Make-Ahead Breakfast Pockets with Ham, Eggs & Cheese would be wonderful!
I have made this many times now. A whooping 5 out of 6 family members approve which is a great ratio in our house. It is so good with the apple butter or any other fruit spread you happen to have.
This looked and sounded like a wonderful new brunch lunch supper idea….but as a single man who almost never has guests or more than one mouth to feed at any meal I knew your 6 egg version would be a delicious but an unwelcome invitation to overeat. (It has to be eaten hot and fresh from the oven…so what better excuse right? I’m bad but not THAT bad haha.). I wouldn’t give up on this so tempting a treat though, so decided I’d try to proportionally scale back the ingredients in your recipe to:
– one large egg
– 1/4 cup milk
– 1 teaspoon brown sugar
– a little bit less than a full quarter teaspoon of both vanilla and cinnamon
– 2 tablespoons of butter melted in the pan
I followed all your preparation and baking directions but instead of using the full size blender I did it all in my magic bullet which worked perfectly for the smaller quantity. Using a toaster oven (the single cooks best friend!) and a small individual casserole pan I kept watch through the window. With the smaller pan and quantity of ingredients it rose perfectly and was ready to devour in only 12 to 13 minutes! So wonderful with fresh homemade plum and pear compote that filled the middle of the individual sized whole serving perfectly. Easy fast and delicious it’s now at the top of my favourite brunch dishes…
Thanks for sharing your recipe. Hope my downsized variation will encourage other solo eaters to try this warm and wonderful treat.
P.S. As I was preparing this I realized that it is a sweet brunch time close cousin of the traditional English Yorkshire Pudding that my mom would sometimes make to serve with the Sunday Roast Beef…But having a sweet tooth and in my maturity generally favouring brunch now more than a big family meat focused dinner I have to say that for me this Dutch treat is the winner hands down!
(FYI I also absolutely LOVE your crock pot apple butter recipe…measuring the cinnamon in multiple tablespoons makes it so much more flavourful and definitely for cinnamon freaks!)
Oops. Forgot to include the flour in the ingredients list: 1/4 cup – same amount of flour as of milk reduced proportionally from the original recipe.
Thanks for this we love “pancake poof” and as my kids have grown (in appetite) it’s been tricky to keep they full with it. We’ve used this in my 9×12 glass baking dish with good results. It’s not a circle but oh well. Delicious!
I wanted to halve this recipe since it was just for 2 adults, so my results may be due to that. I used a cast iron pan and baked at 425. I found that the butter went past the point of being brown and got some black crusty bits before I poured in the batter. The pancake itself cooked up nicely. Bake it around 18-20 minutes. Interested to try the full recipe when we have a larger crowd. Thanks 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly. It was delicious and came together easily. It took a simple breakfast with visiting adult children up a notch. We topped it with thawed, frozen fruit and real maple syrup, served alongside bacon and instant pot “roasted” potatoes. Thank you for a lovely meal.