Pfannekuchen - German Pancakes

Photo by Rob Robitaille

This is another thing I grew up eating.  As usual, no one else I knew ate anything like this, and in case you are wondering, yes, these are basically crepes.  I have yet to find any information on what, if any, difference there is between a pfannekuchen and a crepe.  The only thing I can tell, from my own observation, is that the German pfannekuchen tend to be cooked a bit more brown than the crepe, which tend to be in the golden brown category.  Other than that, they seem to be identical in all other aspects.  This photo represents the most common use for these from my childhood.  Creamed asparagus rolled in a pfannekuchen.  This is not uncommon in Germany, but the main difference is that Germans tend to eat the white asparagus, rather than green.

Asparagus tangent: From what I understand, the white asparagus are really no different than the green, other than they are kept covered in earth until being harvested.  This yields a pale white stock with a much more mild flavor as well as being much more tender.  Generally these are harvested at about 18" in length and as big around as your thumb.  When I visited Germany as a child, it was right in the heart of asparagus season, and like most of Europe, when something is in season, that is what you eat until you can't bear the thought of having it again.  It typically starts out with them in the purest form - being steamed and served with some clarified butter, then moves into many other variations, including creamed and rolled in a pfannekuchen.  Although white asparagus are occasionally on the market in the states, I have never had any as good as in Germany.

But, let's get back to the pfannekuchen.  Like I said before, they are a crepe and can be used in the same ways crepes can.  They can be filled with savory filling or sweet, made into a cake, or eaten with a dusting of sugar or honey.  Left over, they can be frozen for later user.  But since I am thinking back to my childhood, I should mention the main use for left over pfannekuchen in our house.  Actually, for some reason it was Dad's job to do this, and that was to thinly slice them into strips, then lay them on a sheet pan and freeze them.  Once frozen, they were stored in plastic bags until being used in soup, similar to a noodle. The cool thing about this symbiosis is that the frozen shreds are placed in a bowl and piping hot soup is ladled over them. The hot soup thaws the shredded pfannekuchen and  in turn, the pfannekuchen helps cool the hot soup.  For some reason, soup was always dished up "boiling lava" hot in our house.

I would consider crepes to be an easy recipe that most anyone can make.  A well seasoned or non stick pan is helpful, as is a silicone spatula for flipping.  Total prep time for the completed dish is under an hour.

Pfannekuchen

• 2 1/2 c. Flour (all-purpose)
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp. Baking powder
• 2 Medium eggs
• 2 c. Milk

Place the dry ingredients in bowl. Add the eggs and part of the milk. Stir together and add remaining milk in stages until the batter is thin and creamy. Heat a large non-stick pan with a bit of vegetable oil, butter, shortening, lard, duck fat, or whatever seems appropriate for how you will be using them. Pour in one 1/4 cup ladle of batter and spread around in circles until you have a very thin pancake. When the pancake starts to get dry on top, flip over with a silicone spatula and cook until lightly browned and cooked through. Don't be afraid to make them a bit darker than golden brown. Remove to a plate and repeat until you use all the batter.

Creamed Asparagus

• 1 lb. asparagus, woody ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
• sauce bechamel (recipe follows)
• Fresh nutmeg to taste 

Steam asparagus in salted water until tender.  Remove the asparagus from the pan with a slotted spoon and combine with the bechamel.  Season with nutmeg to create that traditional German flavor.

Cooks note: depending on much loss their is by trimming the woody ends from the asparagus, you may need to adjust the amount of sauce bechamel.

Sauce Bechamel

It just kills me to add this into this post, because this sauce is so important to the culinary world that it deserves its own post, which I will do at some point.

• 2 T. butter
• 3 T. flour
• 2 c. milk, hot
• Salt and white pepper to taste

In a heavy sauce pan, melt the butter over low heat.  Then add the flour and whisk for a couple minutes until bubbly and frothy to form a white roux.  Remove from the heat and add the hot milk whisking vigorously until smooth.  You don't want any lumps.  Place on medium high heat and whisk until it comes to a boil.  Continue to whisk for another minute.  Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.

Cooks note:  For this particular use, you can substitute some (maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup) of the asparagus steaming liquid for the milk.  Just be mindful of this when adjusting your seasoning at the end as you may not need to add any salt.