This Sourdough Dutch Baby recipe is a wonderful twist on regular pancakes, offering a delicious breakfast that's both simple and satisfying. With this easy recipe, you can enjoy the unique tang of sourdough in a fluffy, oven-baked treat that's perfect for any morning.
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Dutch Baby Pancakes: What Exactly Are They?
Dutch baby or a German pancake is a puffy oven pancake made in your trusty cast iron skillet. The batter, consisting of eggs, flour, and milk creates a light and airy texture and crispy edges when baked. These pancakes rise impressively in the oven! Serve them with your favourite toppings for a delicious way to enjoy breakfast or brunch!
We love all things sourdough, so our Sourdough version of German pancakes uses excess sourdough starter to help prevent food waste and make your Dutch Baby taste even better!
Ingredients and Substitutes
I will start by saying that this Sourdough Dutch Baby Pancake took a while to perfect. I was adamant not to use any unfermented flour!
Whilst using lots of sourdough starter discard and no extra all-purpose flour make great tasting Dutch Baby pancakes, they are a little flatter, with the dough not rising up the sides of the pan as much. So if you are looking for proper German pancakes, try our Strawberry Dutch Baby recipe!
So here's my final recipe for the sourdough puff pancake. You will need a handful of simple ingredients:
- sourdough starter: this recipe works with sourdough discard or active starter.
- eggs: large.
- milk: we used whole milk.
- sugar: we used caster sugar (a.k.a. superfine sugar).
- salt.
- unsalted butter.
Step-By-Step Method
1. Preheat the oven to 240°C (460°F). Place a 23cm (9 in) cast-iron skillet in the oven whilst it preheats too.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine your sourdough starter and milk using a balloon whisk or an electric hand mixer.
3. Add salt, sugar and eggs and whisk vigorously to combine all the ingredients into a smooth thin batter.
4. Take a hot cast iron skillet out of the oven, and immediately drop your butter into the pan. Swirl to encourage the butter to melt quickly.
5. Without delay, pour Sourdough Dutch Baby batter into the melted butter and place it in the preheated oven.
6. Bake the pancake for 15-20 minutes. It should puff up, turn golden brown and have crispy edges.
7. Serve immediately with your favourite toppings before your puffy pancake starts deflating (we have lots of topping suggestions below).
Tips For Best Results
- Fresh Eggs. From my experience, the fresher the eggs the better the "puff"!
- Room Temperature Ingredients. They blend better and won't cool down the skillet as much when the batter is poured into it.
- You can make the batter in a food processor, liquidiser or a large smoothie maker (easy cleanup!)
- High Heat. I mean extra hot skillet and extra hot oven!
- No Delay. Encourage the butter to melt into the hot cast-iron skillet, then pour the batter into it before it has time to cool down. And straight into the oven it goes!
- Whilst we typically make big Dutch Babies, you can use muffin tins (ideally dark in colour) to make mini Dutch Babies.
Topping Suggestions For Every Season
Strawberry Compote and Greek yogurt is our favourite choice for summer breakfast, a variety of toppings work very well. You can use anything that you would for your traditional pancakes. Here are some other things that we love.
- Use fresh fruit or fresh berries and some whipped cream to dress your Dutch Babies.
- Lemon juice and sugar is a classic combination!
- How about some sliced bananas and Nutella?
- Stewed apple slices on top of Dutch babies make a delicious autumn breakfast.
- Who doesn't like maple syrup and butter, right?
- Instead of creme fraiche or yogurt, why not make this Ricotta Cream or serve it with a scoop of ice cream next time?
Want a savoury Dutch baby? Skip the sugar in this recipe, and top it with creme fraiche and smoked salmon! It's divine!
Recipe FAQs
You can certainly mix the batter up to 24 hours in advance and store it in the fridge. Give it a good stir before baking it, though, as the mixture tends to separate.
Absolutely. Whilst sourdough starter is not a leavening agent in this recipe, you can use extra sourdough starter after baking sourdough bread.
More Pancake Recipes
If you love Sourdough Dutch Babies, you may enjoy some of our other favourite pancake recipes. After all, pancakes are a great way to use up the never-ending sourodugh discard, right? So try our Overnight Sourdough Pancake recipe and Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes for your next easy breakfast adventure. In autumn, try our Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes.
Fancy a thin pancake with crispy edges? Try our Sourdough Crepes (Easy Recipe Made With Discard)!
Sourdough Dutch Baby (Sourdough German Pancake)
Equipment
- 9 in (23 cm) Cast Iron Skillet
Ingredients
- 150 g (0.6 cups) sourdough starter discard or active
- 100 ml (¼ cups + 4 tbsp) milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3 eggs large
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 240°C (460°F). Place a 23cm (9 in) cast-iron skillet in the oven whilst it preheats too.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine your sourdough starter and milk using a balloon whisk or an electric hand mixer.
- Add salt, sugar and eggs and whisk vigorously to combine all the ingredients into a smooth thin batter.
- Take a hot cast iron skillet out of the oven, and immediately drop your butter into the pan. Swirl to encourage the butter to melt quickly.
- Without delay, pour Sourdough Dutch Baby batter into the melted butter and place it in the preheated oven.
- Bake the pancake for 15-20 minutes. It should puff up, turn golden brown and have crispy edges.
- Serve immediately with your favourite toppings before your puffy pancake starts deflating.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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