Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Poffertjes
Small, puffy yeast-raised pancakes made with buckwheat and wheat flour, served hot in a heap under a knob of butter and a heavy dusting of icing sugar.
Dutch · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~406 cal · 10g protein · 54g carbs · 17g fat · 3g fiber · 17g sugars · 10g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Poffertjes are little Dutch pancakes, somewhere between a pancake and a warm fritter, with a soft, spongy centre. The name is a diminutive meaning roughly "little puffs". They are a fairground and market food, cooked in a special cast-iron pan drilled with shallow round wells, and eaten as a sweet snack or dessert.
Two things set a proper poffertje apart from an ordinary mini pancake. The batter is raised with yeast rather than baking powder, which gives it an open, spongy interior and a faintly tangy, bread-like flavour after resting. And it is traditionally made with a blend of buckwheat and wheat flour; the buckwheat brings a gentle nuttiness and a slightly greyed colour, while the wheat gives the yeast the gluten it needs to puff.
The classic finish is almost aggressively simple: pile the hot poffertjes on a plate, drop a knob of cold butter over the top so it half-melts, and sift over a generous cloud of icing sugar. They are best eaten straight away, while the butter is still melting.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
100 g buckwheat flour
100 g plain wheat flour
7 g active dry yeast
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt
350 ml whole milk, lukewarm
1 egg, beaten
60 g butter, for the batter and the pan
2-3 tbsp icing sugar, to serve
Instructions
1
Whisk the buckwheat flour, wheat flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make a well and whisk in the lukewarm milk and beaten egg to a smooth batter about the thickness of double cream.
2
Cover and leave somewhere warm for 45-60 minutes, until risen and bubbly across the surface.
✎ Chef’s note
Yeast, not baking powder, gives poffertjes their open, spongy middle and faint tang; do not skip the rise.
3
Heat a poffertjes pan (or a heavy frying pan) over medium heat and brush the wells with a little melted butter.
4
Fill each well about two-thirds full. Cook 1-2 minutes until the edges set and bubbles appear, then flip each with a skewer or fork and cook another minute until puffed and golden.
5
Pile the hot poffertjes onto warm plates, drop a knob of butter over the top so it half-melts, and dust heavily with icing sugar. Serve at once.
Dutch market and fairground tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Gelderland. Two dishes barely leave the province. Kruudmoes is a Veluwe porridge of barley and buttermilk cooked with herbs, and the Achterhoek has pot deur mekare, everything through each other, served with nagelholt, beef cured with cloves. Stamppot by contrast is national and appears in Dutch cookbooks by 1661.
🗺️
Netherlands. Dutch food is hearty and unpretentious, stamppot mash, split-pea snert, herring eaten by hand, and an epic love of cheese. A colonial past brings Indonesian rijsttafel and sweet treats like stroopwafels and hagelslag.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Netherlands
Stamppot BoerenkoolKale mashed straight into potatoes with a well of gravy and smoked sausage, the Netherlands’ winter engine.
WentelteefjesStale bread turned in cinnamon-sugar custard and fried in butter until golden, the classic Dutch way to use up an old loaf.
UitsmijterFried eggs over ham and cheese on buttered bread, the Dutch open-faced lunch plate served any time of day.
Browse all Netherlands recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Netherlands meal
Erwtensoep (Snert)Dinner
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Poffertjes?
Small, puffy yeast-raised pancakes made with buckwheat and wheat flour, served hot in a heap under a knob of butter and a heavy dusting of icing sugar.
Where does Poffertjes come from?
Poffertjes is a Dutch dish from Gelderland, Netherlands.
Can Poffertjes be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Poffertjes recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Poffertjes safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Poffertjes take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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