The Dutch Pancake Toastie: Bacon, Cheese and Syrup

One of the things I was mostly looking forward to when Jack and I arrived in the Netherlands, to go to a Pannenkoekenhuis and have him try a “pannekoek met kaas en spek”…”en stroop”. 

Yes, you read that right: we eat pancakes with cheese, bacon and syrup. And of course we had to turn that into a toastie 🙂

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The Dutch Pancake Toastie: Bacon, Cheese and Syrup


  • Author: Toastie Lab
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 2 1x

Description

One of the things I was mostly looking forward to when Jack and I arrived in the Netherlands, to go to a Pannenkoekenhuis and have him try a “pannekoek met kaas en spek”…”en stroop”. 

Yes, you read that right: we eat pancakes with cheese, bacon and syrup. And of course we had to turn that into a toastie 🙂


Scale

Ingredients

  • Four slices of white bread
  • 1 egg
  • 100 ml milk
  • Bacon (in slices)
  • “Dutch” Cheese (in slices)
  • “Stroop” (or any other kind of syrup)

Instructions

  1. Fry the bacon on the grill until crispy. Set aside.
  2. Break the egg on a plate and stir it with the milk.
  3. Dip one side of each slice of bread in the egg-milk mixture. 
  4. With the wet side down, assemble the toastie: 
  5. Place one or two slices of cheese on the bread.
  6. Place the bacon on top of the cheese. 
  7. Drizzle some syrup on the bacon. 
  8. Put the second slice of bread on top (with the wet side up)
  9. Grill gently until crispy and goldish brown
  10. Serve with extra syrup and enjoy!

Notes

  • Sauce tip: more syrup
  • Bread tip: (old) white bread 
  • Category: Toasted Sandwich
  • Method: Sandwich Grill
  • Cuisine: Dutch

Keywords: toasted sandwich, cheese sandwich, bacon and cheese sandwich, grilled cheese, pancake recipe, dutch pancakes, pannekoek met spek, kaas en stroop

Dutch Pancake Toastie FAQs

Do you have to use the egg & milk for this toastie? 

You could make this toastie totally perfectly deliciously fine without using the egg and milk mixture to dip the bread in. However, the bread gets a little softer and more pancake-like when you use the egg-mixture.

Since we’re trying to copy a pancake recipe, I decided that the egg-mixture adds to the pancake-like texture of the bread. It also gives it a bit more fluff and flavor. 

If you prefer a crispy (and perhaps a slightly) dryer toastie, leave the mixture out. 

Can you fry bacon on the grill? 

A well-heated grill is perfect for grilling bacon. The trick is to use only one side of the grill, to prevent the bacon from scorching, because it would just get too hot. Turn the bacon every now and then to make sure both sides get equally crispy. 

The nice thing about the grill is that excessive grease just drips off the grill into the little container underneath it. So, your bacon will be a little less greasy. 

You could also opt for preparing the bacon in a pan. If you have really thin slices of bacon, this might work better, because the grill might burn them. 

What kind of syrup do you use for the Dutch Pancake Toastie? 

You can use any kind of syrup for this toastie. Here in the Netherlands we use what is called “pannenkoekenstroop(of schenkstroop), but instead you could use any other kind of syrup available in your supermarket. 

Here are some alternatives: 

  • Honey
  • Maple syrup
  • Aunt Jemima Syrup
  • Barley Malt Syrup
  • (High Fructose) Corn Syrup
  • Agave Syrup
  • Apple Syrup

What kind of cheese works best on the Dutch Pancake Toastie?

The Dutch pancake would call for some nice belegen kaas. Depending on where you live, you’d probably want to look for Gouda or Cheddar cheese. Opt for something mild or medium aged. The most standard cheese you can find probably works best for this recipe. 

The cheese needs to be a tad salty, but not too much, because the bacon is already quite salty. However, because this is a sweet and salty toastie, you need a type of cheese that is flavorful enough to compete with the sweet syrup. 

What kind of bread do you use for the Dutch Pancake Toastie?

To make this toastie resemble a pancake, we opted for plain white bread. You could choose any other kind of bread for this toastie instead, depending on your preferences and availability. 

When using the egg-mixture, it is even recommended to use old bread – as it will soak up the mixture a lot better!

How long does it take to make the Dutch Pancake Toastie?

Keep the following times in mind as an indicator:  

Preheating grillFrying baconPreparing ToastieGrilling Toastie
5 minutes5-10 minutes10 minutes5-7 minutes

There’s a couple things to consider for this toastie:

  1. The bacon needs to be grilled separately. Depending on the thickness of the slices of bacon, this could take anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. 
  2. If you prepare the bacon in a separate pan, it can take more or less the same time. Just make sure that the bacon is cooked thoroughly before you put it on the toastie. 
  3. If you use the egg-mixture, you need to make sure that the bread is cooked thoroughly. If the bread has soaked up a lot of mixture, give the toastie an extra couple of minutes on the grill. 
  4. If you don’t use the egg-mixture, you can use less time on the grill. 

How do you know the Dutch Pancake Toastie is ready? 

Many grills and toastie-makers come with an accompanying light that indicates two things: 

  1. If the grill is hot enough for the toastie to be put on the grill
  2. If the toastie is ready

Since my toastie always ends up being much, much thicker than most regular toasties, I never really look at the light at the grill. I often find myself giving the toastie an extra couple of minutes to make sure the cheese has fully melted. 

The best way to know if this toastie is ready, is by looking for two signs: 

  1. The sizzling sounds of cheese melting and grease dripping
  2. The cheese melting and dripping out of the toastie. 

The sizzling indicates that the toastie is getting close to ready. 

The cheese tells me that my toastie is ready and that even the inside is now hot enough to be fully melted!

Could I replace the bacon in the Dutch Pancake Toastie? 

If you want to skip the bacon, you could choose to put regular ham on this toastie instead. It might still be nice to grill the ham before putting it on the toastie, to see if you can make it a bit more crispy. 

Another option is turkey bacon

Are there any ways to make the Dutch Pancake Toastie vegetarian?

You could totally skip the bacon and replace it with any of the following things: 

  • Onion
  • Apple
  • Pineapple
  • Raisins
  • Mushrooms

Those are all traditional (vegetarian) ingredients for pancakes. 

Are there any ways to make the Dutch Pancake Toastie vegan? 

Turning this toastie into a vegan version is going to be a bit of a stretch, but… Let’s see what we can do: 

  1. Leave out the egg-mixture and some vegan butter on the outside of the bread. 
  2. Replace the cheese with vegan cheese
  3. Replace the bacon with some kind of vegan bacon:
    • Eggplant bacon
    • Coconut bacon
    • Tofu bacon
    • Tempeh bacon
    • Mushrooms
  4. Make sure the syrup you use is vegan 
  5. Make sure the bread you use is vegan. 

When is the best time of day to eat the Dutch Pancake Toastie? 

You can eat this toastie for breakfast (american style), lunch, or dinner (dutch style). Funnily enough, it is much more common in the Netherlands to eat pannenkoeken for dinner, than it is for breakfast. 

That being said, I have totally embraced the idea of eating pancakes for breakfast. It’s such a great start of the day! And besides, all the ingredients are breakfast-ingredients anyways! Who are we kidding here? No better way to start your day than with pancakes!

You could also eat this pancake as a snack, eat it for lunch or as any other time you’d like! 

Is there any way to make the Dutch Pancake Toastie look pretty? 

You can decorate the toastie with more syrup. The nice way to do this is by making some kind of grid pattern.

Try to use a minimum amount of syrup for decorating. If you use too much, it will just start running everywhere once it sets in. Also, because you will put the syrup on a hot toastie, it will start to become more liquid and thus even more runny! 

(and runny syrup just doesn’t look pretty)

What is a Dutch pancake? 

Dutch pancakes are thin, large, whole-pan sized pancakes. They are much thinner than American pancakes, but not as thin as French crepes. Dutch pancakes can be eaten sweet or savory, or both. 

Common Dutch pancake toppings are:

  • Apple
  • Apple and cinnamon
  • Apple, cinnamon and raisins
  • Ham
  • Ham and cheese
  • Ham, cheese and pineapple
  • Pineapple and cheese
  • Bacon and cheese
  • Bacon, ham and cheese
  • Jam (jelly) and sugar
  • Nutella

The most classic dutchpancake is served with syrup and powdered sugar!

What is the difference between Dutch pancakes and American pancakes?

Plain dutch pancakes only have three ingredients: flour, milk and eggs. They are big, flat, flexible pancakes, while the american pancakes are much more fluffy and not as flexible. This difference is because of the different ratios of the main ingredients. 

American pancakes contain sugar and baking powder (to make them fluffy). 

Ingredients (4 servings)American pancakeDutch pancake
Flour135grams/4¾ oz125grams/4.4 oz
Milk130ml/4½ fl oz250ml/8.8 oz
Eggs11
Sugar2tbspN/A
Baking powder1tspN/A

Toastie Lab

Toastie Lab is the collective effort of Jack and Eveline. We love making, experimenting with, and eating toasted sandwiches.

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