Treat of the Week: Dutch Baby

Ah, the Dutch Baby—a long-time favorite of mine. While not actually Dutch and not actually a baby, the peculiarly-named, sweet and versatile pancake has a long history. Perfect for dessert, an entrée or for breakfast, this delightful creation is most assuredly a joyful experience.


The “Dutch Baby,” also called a “Bismarck,” began as a German pancake known as apfelpfannkuchen, and is, at its heart, essentially a low, flat Yorkshire pudding. Made with eggs, flour, milk, vanilla and cinnamon, the Dutch Baby is cooked on the stove in a cast iron skillet before being placed in the oven to finish baking. Once in the oven, it rises like a Yorkshire pudding.

While a Dutch Baby can be made in a large pan and then sliced for serving, (this phenomenon being referred to as “The Big Dutch Baby”) my mother makes them in small skillets allowing for each person to have a serving of their own baby. She fills the center with fresh fruit which becomes juicy and wonderfully soft as it bakes. In this case, fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries filled the pancake. Once baked, the Dutch baby is dusted with confectioner’s sugar, drizzled with honey and served with a side of whipped cream. It’s pure heaven!

Now, how did the apfelpfannkuchen become known as “The Dutch Baby”? It seems that the first people to call this pancake by that name were the owner’s of Manca’s Café in Seattle. Manca’s had a copyright on the name until closing in the 1950’s. According to Dutch Baby legend, it was Victor Manca’s daughter who dubbed the pancake, “Dutch Baby.” But, why Dutch? They’re German. “Dutch” seems to apply to the “Pennsylvania Dutch,” a nickname for German immigrants in the U.S. who were called “Dutch” because of the word “Deutsch.”

However, a baby by any other name would taste as sweet. Regardless of what you call them, they’re a wonderful, and relatively simple dish to prepare. Now, I’m not the chef in the family, so recipes are not my forte. I eat and enjoy, but the art and science of cooking is still something of a mystery to me. However, a simple online search for “Dutch Baby” will yield myriad recipes which will allow you to adopt a Dutch Baby of your own—and then eat it.