Central Europe · Volume 22, Herring, Beer and a Coastline Three Nations Share
Poffertjes
The Netherlands
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour 30
- Researched
- 9 sources cited
The commonly told origin, French monks near Woerden experimenting with buckwheat after a wheat shortage, could not be confirmed against any primary or academic source. What is well documented is the fairground trade itself: poffertjes stalls were part of Dutch markets by the end of the eighteenth century, and at the 1875 Amsterdam kermis a single stall reportedly sold an average of sixteen thousand eight hundred individual poffertjes a day.
As tradition built it
Makes about 40, serves 4. About 1.5 hours including proving.
Ingredients
- 100 g plain wheat flour
- 100 g buckwheat flour
- 7 g dried yeast
- 300 ml warm milk
- 1 egg
- a pinch salt
- for the pan butter
- a large knob butter, to serve
- a heavy dusting icing sugar, to serve
Method
- Whisk the yeast into the warm milk, leave 10 minutes until foamy.
- Whisk in the flours, egg and salt to a smooth, thin batter.
- Cover and prove about 1 hour, until bubbling.
- Heat a poffertjespan (or a very hot flat griddle if none is available) and butter the dimples well.
- Pour or pipe small amounts of batter into each dimple, and cook 1 to 2 minutes a side, turning with a skewer or two forks, until golden and puffed.
- Serve immediately, in a heap, with a large knob of butter melting through and a heavy dusting of icing sugar.
What a modern chef changes
The buckwheat's own flavour foregrounded, and the batter's rest given genuine respect
Rung 1, applied by analogy to a yeasted batter rather than a lactic ferment
Method
- Push the buckwheat ratio higher, toward two-thirds buckwheat to one-third wheat, for a more pronounced nutty flavour than the more common half-and-half split, since the buckwheat is genuinely the ingredient responsible for what makes a poffertje distinct from an ordinary small pancake.
- Do not rush the prove. A full, unhurried hour, in a warm spot rather than a hot one, builds the light, faintly sour depth a yeasted batter should have; a poffertje made from an under-proved batter is simply a flat, gummy blini.
- Brown a portion of the butter before serving, rather than melting it plain, for a nuttier, more complex finish that plays directly against the buckwheat rather than simply enriching the dish.