Ah Pannukakku. To say it is to love it. This Dark Chocolate Finnish Oven Pancake is very much like a Dutch Baby (if not exactly like a Dutch Baby, to be honest), and it is truly a delight to both prepare and enjoy. This type of recipe really finds a welcome home here at My Kitchen Little, what with it’s meager assembly of utterly humble ingredients, and it makes a wonderful addition to any breakfast or brunch table, or if you’re me, dinner.
I find the various iterations of specific recipes, from country to country, so interesting. From noodles and dumplings to sauces and apparently, giant pancakes, it seems the world really has a core conglomeration of dishes, that expand and shape-shift a little when they cross borders, sail across oceans and step into new time zones. I love this. Cultures around the world will have their way with these core recipes, adding their own techniques, spices, and spins – breathing new life and a uniqueness into them until they can claim ownership. This truth can be seen in dishes like Gyoza in Asia and their resemblance to Galician empanadas and Polish pirogi. Dumplings have walked all over this world, making their presence known and well-loved … they just change their steps a bit from one port of call to the next. The giant, ever-popular, oven pancake is no different.
What is Pannukakku?
Read it again. Sounds a lot like pancake, no? Just with Finnish flair. This dish, the beloved pancake of Finland, is a very egg-based, oven-baked pancake/crepe/popover hybrid of sorts that, like a German pancake/Dutch Baby, climbs the sides of it’s baking dish as it cooks – like it’s trying to escape, to break free. Get me outtttttt of here!!! It’s really a dramatic thing.
Most Dutch Baby recipes tend to be void of sugar, though, and I’ve noticed that most Pannukakku recipes call for it. As such, I leaned into the Finnish iteration of the baked pancake because I wanted to play with dark cocoa powder, and dark chocolate benefits from a spoonful (or two) of sugar. Helps it go down and all that.
This brilliant combination of the most basic of pantry staples is a thing of beauty and really couldn’t be simpler. We’ll create the whole bater by throwing the requisite ingredients into a blender and then swirling it into the sizing hot butter that has already melted in the baking dish. The trick, incidentally, to achieving the fetching peaks and valleys in a proper oven pancake comes from swirling the batter into the pan. I find this method works a bit better with a Dutch Baby, but I do recommend you give that a try when you pour this chocolatey mixture into your 9 by 13. Last trick: try brushing some of the melted butter up the sides of the pan, before you pour the batter in. I equate this to giving a rock climber rungs or handles to grab onto as they climb, lifting them ever higher as they go. The butter is the rungs. Ahem.
Enjoy this one, guys! Hope you’re all having an excellent week thus far …
Dark Chocolate Finnish Oven Pancake
Very similar in appearance to a Dutch Baby and in structure/composition to popovers, this huge chocolatey pancake (Pannukakku) is made more according to the Finnish preparation, as it calls for a bit of sugar in the mix as well. These bake up big and puffy and the sides will climb all the way up the pan, giving the most fun breakfast or brunch experience, and providing the perfect bed for plenty of toppings.
Ingredients
6 Tbsp butter
1 ¼ cups whole milk
6 eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup dark cocoa powder (such as Hershey’s Special Dark)
¼ tsp saltÂ
Any toppings you like (maple syrup, whipped cream, fruit, etc.)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Add the butter to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt.
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In a blender, combine the milk, eggs, vanilla, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Blend just until smooth and well-combined.
Once the butter has melted, pour the batter (straight out of the blender – easy pouring!) into the baking dish in a swirling motion (this helps build the peaks and valleys). Bake until risen and poofy, about 25 to 30 minutes.Â
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Serve right away with maple syrup, sliced fruit, and other desired toppings.Â
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