Recipe

Palatschinken Will Make You Forget Regular Pancakes and Crepes Exist

By Isabella Martin at University of Chicago

My Oma started making palatschinken for my sister and I as a "special breakfast." As we became older (and bolder), we started begging her to make them during all times of the day. The last time I had palatschinken was just at 3 pm.  

These are better than crepes and pancakes, and they're rolled, so they'll still look pretty even after you butcher flip them in the skillet. Good luck!

Palatschinken

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 35 mins
  • Servings: 14
Ingredients
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup half and half or 1/2 cup whole milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup club soda
  • 7/8 cups sifted flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 dash salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoon butter
  • 1/4 cup jam apricot or raspberry

Isabella Martin

Step 1

Get out all of your ingredients along with a large mixing bowl and whisk.

Isabella Martin

Step 2

Pour 1 cup of half and half into the large mixing bowl. If you want to be fancy (or if you don't have any), you can make your own half and half using 1/2 cup of whole milk and 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

#SpoonTip: If you don't want to do this, you can also just use 1 cup of whole milk.

Isabella Martin

Step 3

Whisk the 3 eggs into the half and half until the mixture is a pale yellow color.

Isabella Martin

Step 4

Continuing to whisk, add in 1/3 cup of club soda.

#SpoonTip: To make opened club soda more fizzy, give it a few shakes.

Isabella Martin

Step 5

Using a sifter, sift the 7/8 cups of flour into the egg mixture. Only sift a little at a time and try not to get flour everywhere.

SpoonTip: if you don't have a sifter, you can also "whisk" your flour using a fork in a separate bowl. This will get some of the clumps out, making your batter smoother.

Isabella Martin

Step 6

After you've sifted about half of the flour, stir the mixture until smooth. Sift the other half, and stir again.

Isabella Martin

Step 7

Once your batter is smooth, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Isabella Martin

Step 8

After stirring in the vanilla, add 3 tablespoons of sugar. Depending on how much sweetness you like, add more or less sugar.

Isabella Martin

Step 9

Now comes the hard part: cooking the palatschinken. Using a large skillet, melt ~1/3 tablespoon (1 teaspoon) of butter on high heat. When the butter is fully melted, ladle in enough batter to cover the center of the skillet.

Isabella Martin

Step 10

Using the back of the ladle, smooth out the batter into a thin circle. You can also tilt your pan to move the batter around.

Isabella Martin

Step 11

Once the batter in the center of the pancake is no longer runny and/or the other side of the pancake is golden-brown, you can flip it over. When the newly-flipped side is also golden-brown, the pancake is finished.

Isabella Martin

Step 12

Your first few pancakes will be very ugly. They might be a little broken from the flip...

Isabella Martin

Step 13

Or they might be too thick...

Isabella Martin

Step 14

But once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to produce some crispy, golden-brown, round, and delicate palatschinken. The good thing is that it doesn't really matter since they're all getting stuffed with jam and rolled.

#SpoonTip: If you have a friend helping you cook, she can jam/roll the pancakes while you cook. If not, you can keep the pancakes warm by placing them in a pan in the oven heated at 200˚F.

Isabella Martin

Step 15

Traditionally, these are stuffed with apricot jam, but raspberry works well, too. Spread 1-2 teaspoons of jam on the top third of the pancake.

Isabella Martin

Step 16

Using your fingers, delicately roll the pancake.

Isabella Martin

Step 17

Keep this up, until all of the pancakes are stuffed and rolled.

Isabella Martin

Step 18

If you're not planning on serving them immediately, place the rolled pancakes in the heated oven. If you're ready to eat, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Isabella Martin