Pannekoeken & Pfankuken

Pannekoeken
Dutch/Belgian style flat pancake  

Serves family of 4

400 g flour
800ml milk
2-3 eggs

Mix flour with half of milk and egg.  Add remaining milk slowly whisking.  Let sit about 20 minutes.

Heat pan and add about 1/2 tbsp butter for each pancake. Add about 3/4 cup of batter and swirl in the hot butter. When bottom is browned flip to other side, remove when both sides are brown. Set aside and serve with sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.

----------------------

Yeast version of recipe

300 gr flour (2 cups)
2 eggs
10 gr yeast (a little over 1T or one packet)
.5 liter (2.5 c warm milk)
1 tsp)
Pinch of sugar
butter for frying


Mix yeast and warm milk
Add to flour, eggs, salt, and pinch of sugar

Cover mix and leave mix to rise for an hour in a warm place

Heat butter in a heavy pan. Make sure the pan is hot before adding mix, one pancake at a time.

This mix is far runnier than American pancakes, so make sure they are paper thin. Turn pancake when the top is dry and it is brown on the bottom.

_________________


And here's the German pancake that I enjoyed growing up from my grandma and mother:


German Pfankuken

4 large eggs
400 g all purpose flour
750 g milk
a pinch of salt
7 tablespoon sugar
vanilla
Butter or crisco for frying

Mix all the ingredients together... Fry in the same way as explained above in the other pancake recipes. Remember you need quite a bit of butter to fry these pancakes, it's not just a light coating of the pan. About 3/4 of a tbsp is a good generous amount.

Serve with a sprinkling of sugar, or jam or even canned peaches (strain them from the juice)  Yum!

Cherry Cinnamon Dumplings

Cherry cinnamon dumplings, a photo by Adventuress Heart on Flickr.

My farmer's cheese - the one I whipped up yesterday with a leftover carton of milk - went into making these fruit dumplings.

A few tbsp of flour, samolina, an egg (at room temperature) with a dash of sugar and sprinkling of salt gets added to the farmers cheese and this dough is formed around a pitted cherry.

Rolling a ball of dough and using my thumb to create a dent then stuff the cherry in and closing it while making sure it is sealed well then boiling them in a bit of water for 7 mins or until they float.

They get drizzled with some melted butter (or try brown butter!) and cinnamon sugar.

The coatings are thick but mostly made of proteins from the cheese so it's not too bad diet wise.

I hope to try another steamed variety that is widely made in Germany using italian plums, perhaps it will impress grandma!

Enjoy!

Farmer's Cheese recipe

If you ever have too much milk on your hands and it's gone past the expiry date don't throw it out. Bring it to a boil and add a few tbsp of vinegar then stir until the liquid looks yellow and you see clumps of cheese floating on the surface, strain the curds (clumps) and add a bit of salt and you've got a fresh farmers cheese that will keep a few days in the fridge! The whey (yellow liquid) is healthy too as it contains proteins, if you're pets like it let them drink it.

Oh and if you want a cool trick to pit cherries check this out! The technique worked perfectly for me and I had all my cherries pitted in 15 mins, it was fun too.

Dutch Baby!

Dutch Baby with Orange Sugar

adapted from Gourmet April 2009

Print this recipe!

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes (run then under warm water if you’re in a hurry)
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature ( I used 2% and was happy)
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put skillet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).

Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.

Serve immediately, topped with orange sugar.

Much thanks to Joy the baker for the recipe

... And a million hugs for my sister N, who whipped up this lovely breakfast for us all!! The animals and I watched her attentively as she put it all together.