But what’s it called?
My Finnish grandmother made an oven pancake that I loved, and now my grandkids enjoy it whenever they visit. My mom often made it for dinner, too, because who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? For years, I knew how to say it, but didn’t know how to spell it.
In my family, we called it KRUP-sue-AH, and I thought it was spelled krupse. I recently shared a picture on Facebook, tagging my cousins who live in Finland, hoping they could spell it.
Turns out kropsu is a regional Finnish word. My cousin Päivi writes:
I have never seen or heard the word “krupse” in Finland, but “kropsu” is known as a Southern Ostrobothnian version of Finnish pannukakku (pan cake). Kropsu (or your krupse?) is a regional word (dialect). It seems that kropsu is a thinner and crispier version of the common Finnish pannukakku.
Päivi also shared this picture and a link to the recipe
What is it?
Pannukakku or kropsu is a thick oven-baked pancake with crispy edges and a creamy, custardy middle. It comes out of the oven all puffy and buttery, and then deflates.
One recipe I found for pannukakku has sugar, baking soda and salt. It also includes sifting and letting the batter rest, and the oven setting is quite high. This recipe says it can be altered to personal taste, “however, it’s important to maintain the simple ratios of using 1/4 cup flour = 1/4 cup milk = 1 egg/per serving.” That’s close to my version.
Some people make an oven pancake called a Dutch Baby or German Pancake. If you search online, you’ll find many variations, some with a LOT of sugar. A few recipes say to blend until smooth; my mother said to keep it lumpy. All recipes state the importance of heating the pan before adding the batter.
I love my family recipe because it’s super simple with just three ingredients and easy to remember. It also reheats well the next day, if you have leftovers.
Here’s my recipe:
A big plus: there is no sugar… unless you add it when you serve it.
Preheat oven to 375. Put 3 T butter in an 8 x 8 glass pan or a round pie pan and put it in the oven to melt the butter and heat the pan.
While the pan heats and butter melts, mix:
1/2 C flour
1/2 C milk
3 eggs.
Don’t worry about lumps. Pour mix into the hot pan (essential for crispy edges) and bake for 15 minutes.
Top with maple syrup, fruit, jelly, lingonberry, or powdered sugar.
Sometimes I add blueberries or thinly sliced apples to the top before I put it in the oven. When we serve it, we drizzle a little maple syrup on top. My grandkids like it plain.
My American cousin Brooke says she adds cinnamon and sugar on top before she peaked hers, and then drizzles syrup and sprinkles a little powdered sugar on top. “Yummmm.”
Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes fiction, poetry and essays. Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing: When an anxious overthinker finds discarded love letters, her fixation on a stranger pulls her straight into chaos, heartbreak, and the unraveling of her carefully constructed life.
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