Recipes

Pannukakku (Finnish Oven Pancake)

Baking · Breakfast · Finnish · Upper Peninsula

Pannukakku (Finnish Oven Pancake)
Prep 10 mins
Cook 30 mins
Serves one 9x13, serves 4 to 6
Level Easy

Pannukakku is the Finnish oven pancake — not the thin rolled kind, but a thick, eggy, custardy sheet baked in a buttered pan and cut into squares. It’s a Finnish-U.P. breakfast fixture, somewhere between a Dutch baby and a baked custard, and it’s about the easiest special breakfast there is: whisk, pour, bake, and it puffs and browns at the edges with a soft custard middle. We eat it with berries and jam — and if you have thimbleberry jam, this is where it goes. More on the Finnish Table.

Ingredients

  • 4 Tbsp butter (for the pan)
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

To serve

  • fresh berries; jam (thimbleberry if you’re lucky); a dusting of powdered sugar

Directions

Key ingredients

It’s a custard batter — more milk and egg than flour — so don’t expect pancake thickness.

Melt the butter in the pan, in the oven

  1. Put the butter in a 9x13 (or a big cast-iron skillet) and set it in a 425°F oven until melted and the pan is hot. A hot, buttered pan is what gives pannukakku its browned, slightly crisp edges and keeps it from sticking.

Whisk a thin batter

  1. Beat the eggs well, then whisk in the milk, then the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla. Keep it loose and smooth. Pour it straight into the hot buttered pan — it’ll sizzle at the edges.

Bake until puffed and set

  1. Bake 25–30 minutes, until the edges are puffed and deep golden and the center is just set with a custardy wobble. It will deflate as it cools — that’s normal, that’s the dish. Cut into squares and serve warm with berries and jam.

Notes

The thick-vs-thin thing In Finland ‘pannukakku’ can mean a thinner oven pancake, but the Finnish-American U.P. version is the thick, custardy, cut-in-squares one, and that’s what this is. Some families make it eggier still (closer to a clafoutis). It is a very close cousin to the Dutch baby / German pancake — same idea, less drama, made to feed a table.

Serving Berries and jam are traditional; lingonberry, blueberry, or thimbleberry are the U.P. answers. Also good with just butter and a squeeze of lemon and sugar.