German Pancakes

When I was about thirteen and my cousin Kia was about eighteen, our families were at the lake together the same week. It was like a family reunion or something. I honestly don't really remember much, except that we were there, she was in love with Eminem and Red Vines, and she taught me how to make German pancakes. It was super easy, they were super delicious, and I had the recipe memorized by the end of the week. Alas, my memory's a sieve for anything useful, and a high-security vault for crap, so, tragically, the recipe was lost.

Today my desire for German pancakes was maximum, and the number of other options was truly pathetic. Pretty much all there is in the fridge is Rotel dip (made of Rotel, spicy sausage, and Velveeta. It looks, smells, and tastes like vomit) and like, some browned ground beef. Other than that, there's not much. And so, the infamously simple and few-ingredient-ed German pancakes was a perfect fit for lunch. So, like a true member of the Millennial Generation, I hopped on the internet to find a recipe. And here it is:

1/2 cup flour

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 T melted butter

1/2 t salt

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes.

Now, I kind of had a little concern here. I mean, three eggs is a LOT and I wasn't so sure that this was exactly what I wanted. So I looked around, found some variations, and this is how the cooking went:

Oven preheated to 450 degrees, 9-in. pie pan placed in oven for about 5 minutes. During this time period, 1/2 cup Better-for-Bread flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 t salt, and a huge "dash" (one might call it an explosion) of cinnamon were mixed in a bowl. After the five or so minutes were up, I pulled the pan out of the oven and dropped 2 T of butter into the hot pan and let it melt right there, which worked perfectly. Once the butter was all melted, I poured the batter into the pan, stuck it in the oven, and set the timer. Then, while waiting, I got to working on this here blog/cookbook (specifically the About the Cookbook page).

About ten or so minutes into cooking (remember, it was supposed to go for 20 minutes), I, being the curious person that I am, opened the oven. This is what I found:

Yeah. So that's a little ridiculous. How can this be fixed? Well, I think a bigger pan (possibly a 13x9, even though that totally kills the roundness factor), or a cutting in half of the recipe would be sufficient. I'd also cut the butter back to a single tablespoon, since there was butter pooling on the top of it. Ultimately, however, the German pancakes were delicious with powdered sugar on the top. Yummy yummy yummy! :) It might be fattening, but hey, it's pretty high protein, right? Variations on the recipe unquestionably forthcoming.

For those who don't like the ingredients of their recipes in paragraph form. (It is kind of reminiscent of a word problem from 4th grade math class, is it not?)

GERMAN PANCAKES--BASIC RECIPE

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Insert empty pan into oven. (13x9, just to be safe, or 9-in. round, if you're into baking architecture). Allow pan to stay in oven at least five minutes, can be before or after oven has finished preheating. While pan and/or oven are heating, mix together flour, milk, salt, eggs, and any optional spices you might like (cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, etc.). Remove pan from oven. Place butter pat in pan and allow to melt. Once butter is fully melted, pour in pancake batter. Return pan to oven. Cook ten minutes. Allow to cool (pancake will deflate slightly) and top with syrup, powdered sugar, jam, or whatever your little heart desires.

Happy eating! :)