German Apple Pancake with Pecans and Raisins
the apple pancake, with a wedge already gone
A German pancake is four eggs and a cup each of flour and milk and it climbs the sides of a hot pan like something alive. It is not a pancake and it is not a cake — the base stays custardy and the rim goes crisp.
The apples go in skin on, in thick wedges. The red edges are visible in the picture and they are half of what it looks like. Peeled and thinly sliced they cook to mush and disappear into the batter.
Everything depends on one thing: the pan and the butter have to be screaming hot when the batter goes in. That is what makes it climb. A cold pan gives you a thick flat omelette.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 15 minutes
- In the oven
- 20 minutes
- Pan
- Preheated, 425°F
What you need
The batter
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup flour
- 2/3 cup whole milk, warmed slightly
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
The apples
- 3 firm apples, skin on, in thick wedges
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup pecan halves
- 1/3 cup raisins
- A pinch of salt
How it goes
1 — Blitz the batter and rest it thirty minutes
Everything into a blender for twenty seconds until completely smooth, then left on the counter. Resting hydrates the flour and lets the bubbles settle, and a rested batter climbs higher.
2 — Room-temperature eggs and warm milk
Cold batter hitting a hot pan does not rise the same way. Thirty minutes on the counter does both jobs at once.
3 — Oven to 425°F with the skillet inside
A 10 or 12-inch cast-iron pan in the oven from cold, for at least fifteen minutes. The pan has to be as hot as the oven.
4 — Apples cooked in butter on the stove first
Hot pan out, butter in, apple wedges, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Three or four minutes on the stove until the sugar is syrupy and the apples have softened at the edges but still hold their shape.
5 — Pecans and raisins in at the last second
Thrown in and tossed just before the batter goes on. Any longer in the hot sugar and the pecans go bitter and the raisins burn.
6 — Batter over the hot apples, straight back in
Poured around and over the fruit and into the oven immediately. Speed matters — every second the pan sits on the stove is heat lost.
7 — Twenty minutes and the door stays shut
It climbs the sides of the pan and goes gold and blistered. Opening the door before eighteen minutes drops the temperature and it collapses on the spot.
pro tip — It WILL sink within a minute of coming out. That is normal and every photograph of one, including this one, is of a pancake that has already sunk.
8 — Cut wedges in the pan and serve from it
Straight to the table in the skillet. It is at its best in the first ten minutes and it does not reheat.
One wedge gone before the photograph. That is how these go. LFG.