Deutscher Pfannkuchen: A Gentle Dinner Treat for A Warm Evening

Last evening it was almost seventy degrees outside, and the neighbors were sitting under torches, chatting and watching the flames in their firepit. It was so balmy and cozy in the evening darkness that I thought to make a candlelit dinner equally gentle. So it was out with Great Aunt Alice's No. 8 cast-iron frying pan, a good hot oven, a quick stir of the ingredients, and the result into the oven to puff and scent the air. Ah, Deutscher Pfannkuchen, or German pancake, a light dish a bit like fallen soufflé -- but really, it's light! -- that's wonderful served with applesauce, some other fresh fruit, a little bread and a bit of cheese.

The boys arrived home from Mamaw's and Papaw's at the farm, and I had the candles lit and everything waiting. It was a good dinner. Herewith, the recipe, as dictated to me by my son, Christopher, here on the sofa with me the afternoon following:

Deutscher Pfannkuchen

Beat three eggs with three tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 6 tablespoons milk. Pour the batter into a large, generously butter skillet and bake it in a hot over, 425 degrees F, for 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderately hot, 375 degrees F, and bake it for 8 minutes longer, or until the pancake puffs up above the side of the pan and turns a delicate brown.

Place the pancake on a platter, sprinkle it with the juice of 1/2 lemon, three tablespoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and one 1/4 cup melted butter. Roll the pancake and dust it with powdered sugar.

Serve at once with applesauce if desired.

From one of my favorite cookbooks, Gourmet's Old Vienna Cookbook: Viennese Memoir. By Lillian Langseth-Christiansen. New York: 1959.

I did not roll up the pancake, but served it in pie-shaped slices, plus I omitted the butter and the powdered sugar.

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