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German Pancakes
Thoroughly mix 6 ounces of flour with 1 ounce of melted butter, the yolk of an egg, and 2 tablespoonfuls of water. Add a pinch of salt, and, very gradually, a quarter of a pint of milk or cream. Beat the ingredients with a wooden spoon till they are smoothly blended. This batter is better for being made two or three hours before it is wanted. Just before using add the white of an egg, beaten to a solid froth.
Have omelet-pan hot into which has been put some beef drippings or butter. Pour in the batter so that the pancakes will be one-eighth of an inch thick. Tilt the pan as the batter runs up the edge of pan, as it is settling. When cooked at bottom, stick pan into a hot oven so that it will be done on top. Slide out of pan; serve with lemon cut in quarters and powdered sugar, or apple sauce.
A thin egg batter finished under oven heat rather than flipped, closer to a crepe than a stack of griddle cakes. The batter rest is not optional if you want it tender.
- Weights to cups6 ounces of flour is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups depending on how it is measured; weigh it if you can, since this batter is thin and easily thrown off. One ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons.
- A quarter of a pintIn an American book of this period that is 1/2 cup (4 fl oz); in a British one it would be 5 fl oz. Either works here. Add it slowly, as directed, or the flour will lump.
- Why the batter restsTwo or three hours lets the flour hydrate and the gluten relax, which is what makes the finished pancake tender rather than rubbery. Refrigerate it if the kitchen is warm, and let it come back toward room temperature before cooking.
- The beaten whiteFold the whipped white in at the last moment with a light hand. It is the only leavening in the recipe, and stirring it down leaves you with a flat, tough cake.
- Omelet-panAny 8 to 10 inch skillet with a low sloping side, and it must be oven-safe, since the pan goes straight into the oven. Cast iron or plain steel is ideal; nothing with a plastic handle.
- Hot ovenRead that as roughly 400-450F, and have it preheated before you start cooking. The pancake only needs a minute or two up top to set the surface.
- Beef drippingsRendered beef fat gives a savoury edge and takes the heat well. Butter alone will brown quickly in a pan this hot, so clarified butter or a neutral oil is a closer substitute if drippings are not on hand.
- Thickness and yieldAt an eighth of an inch, this quantity should make two or three pancakes in a 10 inch pan. Cook them one at a time and hold the first in the warm oven.
- ServingLemon and powdered sugar over the hot surface, squeezed at the table; apple sauce is the winter alternative. Serve as soon as they come out of the oven.