Lemon-Ricotta Dutch Baby
with Pears & Maple Crème Fraîche | 4 servings
- Wheat
- Milk
- Eggs
- Tree Nuts
Ooh, baby! This skillet-size pancake has that “wow” factor that makes eyes open wide. Like a giant popover, the batter poofs up dramatically as it cooks. Then there are the cozy, cold-weather toppings, like pears cooked with warming spices and luxurious crème fraîche mixed with maple syrup. Perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dessert, this baby is so easy to make you’ll want to go Dutch all the time.
Ingredients
1
Lemon
2
Bartlett Pear
½
Flour
(Contains: Wheat)
4
Ricotta Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
4
Eggs
(Contains: Eggs)
6.75
Milk
(Contains: Milk)
1
Cinnamon
1
Nutmeg
3
Brown Sugar
8
Crème Fraîche
(Contains: Milk)
4
Maple Syrup
1
Pecans
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
Not included in your delivery
Salt
4
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
1
Sugar
Nutrition Values
Cooking Steps
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Allow ingredients to come to room temperature. Wash and dry produce. Zest and quarter lemon. Peel, halve, and core pears; dice into ½-inch pieces.
Add 2 TBSP butter to a medium ovenproof pan. Once oven is preheated, place pan on middle rack; heat until butter melts and and starts to bubble. TIP: Watch carefully to avoid burning.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, ricotta, half the lemon zest, three eggs, ½ cup milk, 1 TBSP white sugar, and a pinch of salt until smooth. (Save remaining egg and milk for another use.)
Once butter melts, remove pan from oven and carefully swirl once to evenly coat bottom; pour in batter. Bake on middle rack until puffed and golden, 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt 1 TBSP butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add pears, cinnamon, and ½ tsp nutmeg (we sent more); cook, stirring often, until fragrant, 1 minute. Add brown sugar, ½ cup water, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt; stir to combine, then cover. Cook until pears are tender, 8-10 minutes. TIP: Keep a close eye to avoid burning.
Uncover and cook until liquid is thickened and syrupy, 1-3 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in 1 TBSP butter until melted. (TIP: If liquid seems too thick, stir in a splash more water.) Keep covered until ready to serve.
In a small bowl, whisk together crème fraîche and 1 TBSP maple syrup (save the rest for serving).
Top dutch baby with pears, maple crème fraîche, and pecans. Drizzle with remaining maple syrup. Serve directly from pan (or cut into wedges and divide between plates).
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the delicious combination of lemon, pears, and maple, with some calling it a "flavor explosion" 🍋🍐.
- Ease of prep: Some found it easy to make, while others felt it was time-consuming with many steps.
- Suggestions: Consider adding more pear for extra fruit flavor; some preferred less sugar for a less sweet version.
- Leftovers: Several mentioned it reheats well; some even enjoyed it cold or with ice cream the next day.
- Presentation: Customers were impressed by how beautiful and restaurant-quality it looked when served.
Reviews from our home cooks
I've been wanting to make a Dutch Baby for quite some time. The pancake was light like a Yorkshire pudding. I think I'll play around a bit with the flavor ingredients next time. Maybe adding in some vanilla bean or a bit more lemon. The cinnamon in the pear sauce made the sauce gritty. Although I had cooked it per ingredients, it just never seemed to fully blend into the sauce the way you would have thought. The pear sauce & maple syrup gets evaporated up by the pancake, so have extra at hand. Although the Dutch Baby was very light it was extremely filling. I will definitely be making this again.
I love Dutch babies, so when I saw this, I had to try it. The lemon and ricotta were perfect. I used a berry sauce instead of the pears (which are sitting in my fruit bowl ripening right now, so thanks), but I did use the maple creme fraiche, which was amazing.
This was delicious. I loved the lemoniness of the dutch baby and the pear compote was quite good. Our pears were not quite ripe, so stayed a little too firm even being cooked, but the flavor was spot on. I will slice, as though for a pie, future pears for this recipe, rather than leave in chunks.
This was lots of fun, and it taught me how to make a dutch baby. The lemon ricotta pancake was great. The maple creme fresh was perfect on it, as were the pecans. And the compote was great, and got me making compote again. Thanks!
I am not a big fan of cooked fruit, so I didn't add as many pears as the recipe called for. However, the explosion of different tastes in my mouth was amazing. The slight hint of lemon, the buttery batter, maple syrup covered pecans, cream fraiche, and everything else went into my mouth like an amazing food explosion. I absolutely love this, and I've definitely going to save it to my favorite recipes!
I really like dutch baby recipes, so this was good. The pears were VERY VERY good. I made two individual ones in small cast iron cookware. My husband didn't think he'd eat all his -- but he did -- every bite!
This was my first time making a dutch baby and oh my goodness, it won't be the last! It's very light and the lemon is refreshing. It's beautiful on the plate and fed three of us.
This was DELICIOUS! Would love to have had more of the pear sauce(proportion-wise), given the size of the Dutch Baby. All flavors were excellent together. Winner!
My mom used to make this when I was a kid. She just used cut up strawberries and some powdered sugar and lemon. That would have been a whole lot easier and less caloric - she never used the ricotta. I enjoyed the pears but it was a lot of sugar and I was the only one to eat them so it was a lot of work for not a ton of gain. Everyone did gobble it all up though so I was happy.
We loved this! It was easy to make. Had to add a bit more water to the pears to cook them a bit longer to soften as they weren't fully ripe. Taste was good, but probably should have added more lemon flavor to the batter.
