An easy and delicious savoury prosciutto Dutch baby, with Swiss cheese and topped with mustard and maple syrup dressed arugula.
While this savoury Dutch baby may seem like great brunch food (and it is!), my favourite way to enjoy it is for dinner. Easy to make and made from pantry items, this is a delicious and easy dinner. I love the combination of the warm and flavourful Dutch baby with the sweet mustard dressed arugula on top. It’s like main and salad in one skillet :)
This Dutch baby is also endlessly customizable. Swap up the meat and cheese based on what you have on hand. Try spinach instead of arugula. It’s all good!
Ingredients and Substitutions
For the Dutch baby:
Polenta – refers to the dried, uncooked polenta. Alternately, you could use a coarse cornmeal. While the polenta adds flavour and texture, if you don’t have either, you can omit.
Prosciutto – I usually have prosciutto around, so it’s what I used here. That said, deli ham would be a great alternative, as it’s a natural with the Swiss as well. I think Speck would also be great here.
Swiss cheese – I used deli-sliced Swiss cheese, that I just cut into thirds. Shredded Swiss would also work. Alternately, any nutty cheese like Gruyere or Emmental, would be nice here.
You will also need – salt, milk, eggs (3), butter, all-purpose flour, white granulated sugar for the Dutch baby batter.
For the arugula topping:
Arugula – I love baby arugula, though regular will work as well. If you don’t have arugula, pretty much any green would work nicely here, such as spinach or baby kale.
You will also need – Dijon mustard, White Wine vinegar, maple syrup or honey, vegetable oil (or any neutral tasting oil), salt and freshly ground pepper for the dressing.
FAQ
- Do I need to do the arugula topping? Of course you don’t need to. But you really don’t want to miss it :) It really balances the dish and provides a lovely fresh and slightly maple mustard flavour. As noted above, if you don’t have arugula, baby spinach or any green really, would work nicely, as well. All that said, this is a delicious Dutch baby without any green topping.
- Why did my Dutch baby deflate? If you haven’t made a Dutch baby before, do know that while it will be beautiful and puffy right out of the oven, it will deflate quite quickly. That’s just what Dutch babies do.
- Do I really need to do the 2 hour refrigeration? While I have made Dutch babies without refrigerating the batter, there is definitely a benefit to resting/refrigerating your Dutch baby batter. In this recipe, the process will soften the polenta. More importantly, it will also build more complex flavour. With a little planning, I don’t find the rest a huge problem. I either mix it up the night before and refrigerate overnight to cook in the morning. Or mix in the morning to enjoy for dinner. Worst case, if you absolutely can’t wait, mix and rest one hour at room temperature.
Making Ahead and Storing
Dutch baby pancakes are always best enjoyed freshly cooked. That said, I often wrap and refrigerate left-over for a couple of days. They warm well in the microwave or a skillet on the stove-top. While not a nice as fresh, they are still quite nice with fresh arugula topping.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Seasons and Suppers.
Get the Recipe: Savoury Prosciutto Dutch Baby
Ingredients
For the Dutch Baby:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 3 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons uncooked polenta, or coarse cornmeal
- 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or less if using fine salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 3 Tablespoons butter, cut into 3 pieces
- 5-6 slices prosciutto
- 3 slices Swiss cheese, cutting each slice into thirds
For the arugula topping:
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon White Wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon maple syrup, or honey
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, or any neutral tasting oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/2 cups baby arugula
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, polenta, and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs. Add the milk mixture to flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Cover and chill at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Preheat oven to 425°F (regular bake/not fan assisted) with oven rack in lower third of oven. Remove batter from the refrigerator. Whisk until well combined and allow to stand at room temperature while oven preheats. Prepare your prosciutto, cheese and butter to have handy as you'll need to work quickly.
- Place a 10-inch (top diameter) cast-iron skillet in preheated oven and let heat 15 minutes. Remove the hot skillet from oven and add butter pieces to skillet and swirl, until butter is completely melted and beginning to brown.
- Whisk batter again until well combined and working quickly, pour batter into skillet. Arrange prosciutto and cheese around edges of batter, leaving about a 4-inch-wide circle in centre. *If you want crispy prosciutto, make sure you don't cover it with the cheese. Immediately return skillet to oven, and bake until golden brown, puffed, 16 to 20 minutes.
- While the Dutch baby bakes, add the arugula to a medium bowl. In a small jar or bowl, combine the Dijon mustard, vinegar, maple syrup, and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and shake or whisk vigorously until well combined. Drizzle dressing over arugula, until moistened (you may not need quite all of it).
- Remove Dutch baby from oven. Let stand 1 minute (it will deflate as it rests). Top with dressed arugula and serve.
Notes
More Savoury Dutch Baby Pancakes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Absolutely delicious recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, Ellen :) Thanks!
We did this with some adjustments for what we had on hand and it was the bomb. Fancy heirloom grits, bacon, provolone, collard greens. And doubled for our big fam. Looking forward to trying the Benedict for Thanksgiving, already did the sausage and apple. Love trying new things! Thank you. Even my 17mo old is murmuring her approval ha!
I’m so glad you are enjoying it! Dutch babies are perfect for using what’s on hand. Sounds great! Thanks so much :)
Hi! My skillet is 12 inches on top. How much do you think I should increase the recipe to fill it? Should I set it to 5 servings? 6?
Hi Lex, I think I’d do 6 servings. Enjoy :)
My husband made this for breakfast this morning- Yum! One of the best dutch babies so far- any idea why they’re called dutch babies?
Great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, Maureen :) As for the name, I think the Dutch Baby is essentially a German Pancake and Dutch came from the word Deutsch (meaning German). I’m not really sure where the “baby” came from though.
Is this something that can be scaled to feed a crowd? Any measurement adjustments or other tips? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer and yes it can be scaled up. Here’s what I would do … double or triple the recipe and cook in something like a 9×13-ish rectangular metal pan. Metal works best, to be able to pre-heat it in the oven. Of course, you’ll end up with a rectangular Dutch baby instead of round, but you can cut it into squares to serve. You should get 6-8 nice-sized squares. I’m just not exactly sure how whether you would need to double or triple to fill the pan. I’m thinking double might be enough, unless the pan is bigger than 9×13. Hope that helps.
Thanks, trying this weekend!
Thinking of trying this soon but I have a question! I’m not really a leafy green person. If I left off the arugula, would you recommend leaving off the topping as well, or drizzling it on top for additional flavor? Or would leaving off the greens just make it not work at all? Thanks!
Hi Kelly, I think the role of the greens here is really to balance the richness of the Dutch Baby itself. That said, if you prefer to skip them, it will still be delicious, though as mentioned a little richer over-all. I think I might still do a little drizzle of the vinaigrette, as it adds a nice mustard-y hint to the dish. Hope that helps :)
This turned out great, next time i might use less sugar in the batter though.
Glad you enjoyed it, Elizabeth and yes, you can definitely tweak the sugar to your taste : Thanks!
I love the flavors just as you have written and demonstrate the recipe and can never resist glistening dressed arugula over flat bread, so in the case of this savory Dutch baby will thoroughly enjoy it!
Thanks so much, Milena :)
Hi Jennifer! I have been waiting for the right time to try making a dutch baby and I think that time has finally come. HOWEVER, I see in several of your recipes the dutch babies have different sizes for cast iron pans. I believe the one I have is probably 9 inches.I am wondering if there is another oven proof type of frying pan I might buy to use. My cook top is a smooth top and I am wondering if this will be possible to cook on it. How I long for a gas range.Ugh, but that is another story. I would think that with cast iron on smooth top I would have to be so careful not to drag pan and cause scratches and I wonder if heat would distribute properly. I would love to know what you think.
Hi Carol and so glad you are going to try this one :) My skillet (picture here), is 8-inches diameter on the bottom and 10-inch across the top, so I’m thinking your 9-inch will be just fine. Secondly, don’t worry about your cook top as this one cooks entirely in a hot oven. Preheat the skillet in the oven, then remove and add everything to the hot skillet and return to the oven to bake. Just always remember the handle is hot (it’s so easy to forget and grab it!). Enjoy!
Hi again Jennifer,
I am glad to see that this recipe cooks entirely in oven. So that is great. What about the goat cheese and tomato dutch baby? I think this is where my worry began. I actually will probably try that recipe first. Brrrr -getting wintery type of storm here today. One of these dutch babies would be a welcome meal!
Hi Carol, for the ones that require a bit of stove-top cooking, you could do that part in another skillet (not the cast-iron, then just fire them into the cast-iron skillet to go into the oven. Makes another pan to wash, but will prevent using the cast-iron on your stove-top.
That is really a good idea and not such a big deal to have that one extra pan to clean. I am sure the end result will be worth it. Thanks!
Oh yum! That mustardy arugula tops it off just beautifully! Love this!!
Thanks so much, Annie :)
I don’t think I’ve ever made a dutch baby so this looks like a delicious place to start! I could seriously enjoy this for any meal of the day. Looks super yummy!!
Thanks Dawn and yes, this would be a perfect place to start :)
I haven’t made a Dutch baby in quite a while Jennifer. Loving this savory version!
Thanks Mary Ann :) I think you would love this one!