Today is Saturday, the first Saturday in November. Unlike a typical German November which is grey and cold and colorless and damp and generally chases people back into the warm and dry comfort of their homes, our November here in Olathe, Kansas, features a bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight, and the morning sun is reflecting off the spectacularly red maple tree that’s right outside the office window. It was chilly last night, but not too cold to sleep with the window open a bit. The fresh air and cool breeze on my face felt wonderful.
Waking up with a tiny bit of the beginning of a head cold, the prospect of having to choose between either cold cereal or waffles (the frozen kind, whole wheat, healthy …), my two usual choices for breakfast, failed to make my mouth water. I told Mark about Pfannkuchen which although it translates as “pancakes” is nothing at all like your typical American pancake. You could almost say they look like American pancakes that didn’t quite make it, that got kind of messed up. But they taste – wonderful. And they bring back beautiful memories of Germany and warm kitchens and comfort and indulgence.
Mark, being the caring Lover he is, did a google search for “German pancakes”, found a recipe, went downstairs to the kitchen and got started. The recipe – remember: for Pfannkuchen, not pancakes – calls for 6 eggs, one cup of milk, one cup of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, and butter for the skillet. No baking powder, no oil. Six eggs. We had only five, so Mark improvised a bit, using slightly less milk and flour.
Our stove is uneven, so the batter ran to one side of the skillet – but all you have to do is turn the skillet every so often to distribute the batter evenly. Mark was suspicious. The batter was very runny and the stove uneven and how are you supposed to flip that thing when it is so very thin and already dry here but still runny there and are you sure this is going to work. Actually, he didn’t say that. But he looked like he wanted to say that, and more.
I reassured him that this is indeed what it was supposed to look like because German Pfannkuchen are much more like French crepes than American pancakes.
The Pfannkuchen turned out wonderful. They were slightly gooey (just like they were supposed to be), dense, not fluffy. I probably would use less sugar next time, 1/2 cup seemed almost too sweet – especially if you want to sprinkle some sugar on top of the hot Pfannkuchen right out of the skillet because then the sugar melts and it looks and tastes just – mmmmh.
So. Today, this first Saturday in November, the year being 2007, my Lover made Pfannkuchen for me.
The start of a beautiful day.
