Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Pfannekuchen (A German wrap or pancake)

This recipe was shared with me by one of my friends, Regina, who is German from the area near Frankfurt.  She says that the recipe originally came from her Grandmother's 1957 Bertelsmann Kochbuch.

For this recipe you will need:

2 1/2 cups Flour
2 1/2 cups Milk
3 Eggs
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  It's ok to put the bowl in the refrigerator if you can't cook them off right away.  You do want to make sure your batter doesn't have any lumps & that it's thinner than what is shown in my picture below.  Just keep adding Milk.  It's ok if you need more than what the recipe calls for.  You want it to be like a very thin pancake batter, slightly thicker than crepe batter.



You will add about 1 1/2 Tbsp. oil & 3/4 c. batter to the pan to make one "pancake".  Make sure that your pan is over a medium high heat.  You don't want it on high or you will burn one side of your pancake before you have a chance to flip it. 


Put your oil in the pan & spread it over the whole surface.  Ladle or use a cup measure to put your batter into the pan and roll the pan to get it to spread quickly. 


As you can see from the pictures, the batter gets darker as it cooks.  Use a spatula or tongs to make sure that your Pfannekuchen isn't sticking.  The easiest way to flip it is to slide it towards the front of the pan & flip it in the air catching it back in the pan.  Kind of like what you see some of us chefs do with an omelette.  You can probably try flipping it with a large spatula, let me know if it works for you.  Regina flipped it, so that's how I do it.  Just keeps things simple.


Once flipped, let the other side cook & then place on a plate in a stack or on a cooling rack in a stack.  Here are what a couple of mine looked like.  My pan was getting a bit hot as you can see from this bottom pic.  I like the lighter brown coloring like above better, but they both tasted good.


Now, what to fill it with....well for this time I used a round steak because I had one in the freezer.  I cooked it in that same 375 F oven that I had used for the cauliflower & brussel sprouts.  I put salt & pepper on it and cooked it for about 20 minutes or so. 


I then sliced it thin and put some onions & mushrooms I cooked up with it.  I'll post the recipe for those next. 


Fill it kind of like you would fill a tortilla for a fajita.  Roll it up & enjoy!  We did.


Other ideas for filling these?  How's about grilled chicken or steak, lunch meat & cheese with lettuce and tomato, a vegetarian option with roasted vegetables.  My friend Regina also does one with Nutella that she sprinkles on the top with cocoa powder & powdered sugar.  You could fill them with pie filling, chocolate chips, peanut butter & bananas.  You could also  turn them into a breakfast on the go with a slice of bacon and eggs or part of an omelette with cheese or the possibilities just keep on going.  Let me know what combinations you come up with!

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