These light Pfannkuchen - German Pancakes are similar to crepes and made with only four ingredients for a stack that come together quickly and can be served with a drizzle of lemon juice over brown sugar or a smear of jam before being rolled up tortilla style.
Table of Contents
In our house, these would be filled with thick globs of strawberry jam and before rolling them up like a sleeping bag and biting down on the edges and holding down the other end to make sure no globs of jam fall out the bottom.
Ingredients and substitutions for German Pancakes
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour helps give our pancakes structure and forms the batter to cook nice pancakes. Plain flour additionally helps to soak up a little of that milk and egg moisture giving us a nice smooth batter .
- Sugar: As a result of using superfine or caster sugar, the nice fine granules dissolve and add sweetness without adding additional flavors to the batter. You could substitute with light brown sugar or raw sugar, though this might affect the flavor of the pancakes.
- Eggs: As well as adding structure to the pancakes, the eggs bind everything together, so are essential.
- Milk: Whole milk was used here and helps add moisture to our pancakes and balance out the flavors from eggs for the moisture in our batter. It also gives it the light result without becoming stodgy. You could substitute with creamy non dairy milk of your preference.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make German Pancakes:
Step 1: Batter up: Whisk the ingredients until smooth before resting for 10 minutes.
Step 2: Hot pan: Heat the pan up and toss ยฝ teaspoon of butter in until bubbling.
Step 3: Pancake time: Pour in a ladleful of batter and swirl the pan in your hand until coating the base of the pan and the edges of the pancake are lightly golden. Flip to cook the remaining side.
Step 4: Plate it up: Serve onto your serving plate (or see note below to keep warm until it's time to serve).
Step 5: Serve: Smear with jam and roll up or sprinkle over sugar and drizzle over a little lemon juice and enjoy.
FAQ's for the best German Pancakes
If not eating straight away, preheat the oven while the mixture is resting to 100ยฐC/210F and place each pancake in the oven to keep warm until the stack is complete, then serve.
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German Pancakes
Ingredients
- 225 grams / 5 medium eggs
- 100 grams / ยฝ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 160 grams / 1 cup plain flour
- 80 grams / โ cup milk
Instructions
- Place the eggs, and sugar in a bowl and stir to combine. Sift the flour into the eggs and add the milk. Mix until combined and smooth.
- The mixture should run freely from the spoon, it should be quite a thin batter. Set aside to stand for 10 minutes.
- Place ยผ teaspoon butter into a frying pan and place on medium high heat until the butter bubbles.
- Pour a ladle full of batter into the pan, lift off the heat and swivel the pan around swiftly to spread the batter around the pan.
- Return to the heat until bubbles begin to appear, flip the pancake and cook for a further minute or until lightly browned.
- Continue with the remaining batter.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- Right frying pan temperature: The pan is hot enough when the edges of the pancake curl back after you have flipped it.
- Salted butter in the pan: The best way to cook these is with salted butter which adds nuance to the flavor and improves them. If not using salted butter, toss a little salt into the batter in it's place.
- Keeping the pancakes hot: If not eating straight away, preheat the oven while the mixture is resting to 100ยฐC/210F and place each pancake in the oven to keep warm until the stack is complete, then serve.
- Tip regarding the first pancake: A note from the woman herself: "the first pancake has been noted to always be a little different from the rest of the stack, whether it is too thin or thick or cooks oddly. However, the rest always cook fine." The first always look a little different, but taste good anyway ?
Nutrition
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Made it and loved it?
If you have made this recipe, it would mean so much to leave a review below to help more people find this.
Sharkee
These pancakes sound good. Ure brother sounds like a cool guy. And he knows wat he wants.
Sylvie
From your experience with these pancakes, I'd expect you to say they're better then good.
Lara
While I havenโt made this recipe it is almost the same as the one I make and grew up with. Ours came from my Great Grandmother who came from Austria-Hungry. We typically put butter and sprinkle granulated sugar before rolling. I personally also like some homemade jam in mine.
Sylvie Taylor
Lara, your version of butter and sugar on top is exactly how we ate ours, that is so cool! Very interesting about your Great Grandmother as my mother is from Berlin, but it's the only version of pancakes I've known from Germany, but rarely see online. Thanks so much for your comment and hope you either have your Great Grandmother's recipe or try this one for some lovely memories ๐