Oma's Apfelpfannkuchen (Apple Pancakes)

While reading your lovely story, I relived my very own wonderful memories about the same geographic area you describe, of that of my childhood, and my very own Oma and her recipes. Apfelpfannkuchen will be on the menu list this weekend - albeit in the tropics. All the best to you.

This was very simple to make and delightful for a novice cook. Thanks for sharing!

I love apple pancakes and look forward to trying your family recipe. Thank you for sharing it! I love to put some vanilla extract in batters such as this one. A touch of lemon zest can also be quite nice. My brother-in-law, Claude, used to make his crepe batter with sparkling water or a wheat beer to lighten it, in addition to using milk. I think your Oma's use of sparkling water in her recipe likely has a similar effect.

I used to make an apple pancake very similar to this one that I got out of a Jewish cookbook decades ago. It tastes like love. Thanks for this recipe and for telling us about your Oma.

Given your mother’s mutable results when following Oma’s handmedown and since the recipe shared here is meant to reproduce that elusive perfection, I’d love to eventually get it right rather than close: any chance you can tighten up the instructions for a layperson lacking your personal recollections?

Folk recipes handed down tend to rely on instincts coupled with experience. That is as expected, but, unfortunately, none of us can remember your childhood experiences, and thus lack the memory of Oma’s finished product designed to steer us towards an ideal.

What does “mix” signify in instruction 1? Is that a lazy fork whisk, a gentle fold, an emulsion designed to incorporate air? Moreover, a sparkling water already provides lift. Are we supposed to be careful not to “deflate” that lift through overmixing? Runniness and thick soup are excellent descriptors, but seem to butt up against one’s experience with a batter using carbonated/sparkling water, which is closer to a sponge than something thin or runny, unless we’re talking about a coating applied before frying something. Egg batters as such generally don’t involve separation, whereas here we’re using inflated egg whites AND carbonation, which suggests something delicate requiring the application of careful folding and quick heat.

Instruction 2 indicates a desired feel and taste, along with a suggestion for correcting density. What is the “feel” we’re aiming for? What does that density look like at the raw batter stage, given all the air we’re creating?

Instructions 3, 7, 8 are quite interesting. What’s a thick pancake? Apparently a second pancake is anticipated. How many pancakes does this recipe produce? Finally, what is “done?” Doneness looks different on a conventionally dense pancake versus an airy dutch baby versus a hydrated clafoutis versus a cast iron quick cake using a thin and unrested batter. We’re generally given some kind of clues, related to bubbles, color, or time.

If “it’s never the same” from one execution to the next, does that not indicate it’s time to revisit one’s method or quantities? Presumably Oma delivered a uniform end result time and time again. The cultivar of apple can’t possibly make up that difference, given that any old apple, sliced the right thickness, imparts a limited array of acid to sweetness, crisp to mealiness.