You would think pancakes and Pfannkuchen are the same but they are not. And neither are Pfannkuchen and German Pancakes. And to make matters worse, Pfannkuchen are also called Eierkuchen, Omelett, Palatschinke(n), Plinse, or Eierpfannkuchen in Germany, depending where you’re from. And if you order a Pfannkuchen in Berlin and surrounding areas you’ll receive a doughnut, or as other Germans call them Berliner, Krapfen, or Kreppel.
Please see the following map and link for further explanation of the different words for the fried flat dough.
So, you can see it’s already a mess when it comes to the German names for pancakes, and throw a different country and some history in the mix, and you don’t even know what a pancake exactly is.
But fear not, I am here to bring light into the pancake mystery.
American Pancake
When ordering pancakes (or flapjacks) in an American restaurant, you will get a stack of two or three fluffy and light pancakes, around 6” in diameter. You eat them with butter and a good helping of maple syrup, and you eat them for breakfast.
The American pancake doesn’t differ as much from the pancakes in Germany when it comes to ingredients: flour, sugar, milk, egg(s), pinch of salt. However, to make them fluffy you add baking powder.
Pfannkuchen or Pancakes in Germany
Pfannkuchen in Germany are not usually eaten for breakfast but for lunch or as a dessert. They resemble the French crêpes though they are normally smaller in diameter and not as thin. I have never eaten pancakes in a German restaurant, and it’s just not a typical thing you eat when you go out to eat. Though according to my sources aka my family there are now Pfannkuchenhäuser (pancake houses) in Germany.
As I said, the ingredients of a Pfannkuchen are pretty similar to an American pancake sans the baking powder. When I make pancakes I don’t really follow a recipe but put flour, sugar, a pinch of salt, and an egg or two in a bowl and add milk (or water) to the batter to get the consistency I want. You can eat Pfannkuchen with marmalade, applesauce, yogurt, cinnamon sugar, or fruit compote. Palatschinken from Austria for example are traditionally filled with apricot jam and rolled up. If you made too many pancakes, you can also eat them cold later.
Just like you add chocolate chips or blueberries to American pancakes, you can add those to Pfannkuchen. My father always added thin slices of apple to our pancakes that he’d made for lunch on Fridays. Blueberry pancakes are also delicious especially with whipped cream.
Some people like their pancakes more hearty and eat them with cheese, herbs, salami etc. Often those pancakes are served as filled pancakes and look like an omelet. Personally, I only eat sweet pancakes.
German Pancake
If you want to make pancakes German style and you google “German pancake” (like I did), it will not lead you to recipes for Pfannkuchen but rather a different kind of pancake. The ingredients are the same as for Pfannkuchen but the batter is baked in a pan, usually a cast iron pan. Though just like with the other pancakes, there are variations.
You might know German Pancake under a couple different names, most notably Dutch Baby or Dutch Baby Pancake. It is also called Bismarck, Dutch Puff, or Hootenanny.
So, is this kind of pancake German (Deutsch) or Dutch or something altogether different? Maybe it’s as German as German Chocolate Cake, meaning not German at all.
As with many dishes, we don’t know exactly who invented it, where and when. It’s quite possible that people have been baking this kind of cake for some time in one form or another. Yorkshire pudding for example is similar to a Dutch Baby, though it’s never served sweet.
With the Dutch Baby or German Pancake however, we know that it originated in the US, and not in Germany or the Netherlands. It is said that Manca’s café in Seattle introduced the pancake in the first half of the 20th century and that the owner’s daughter came up with the name “Dutch baby”. It’s possible that “dutch” is derived from “deutsch” which means “German” in German.
Bismarck Pfannkuchen?
Sometimes a German Pancake is also called Bismarck which might indicate a direct link to Germany. Otto von Bismarck was the first Chancellor of the first German Empire that he helped form in 1871. He was a popular statesman and many food items among other things were named after him; the one name still remaining in Germany is the Bismarck-Hering. Restaurants in the US that were run by German immigrants also often used “Bismarck” for the name of their restaurant or café and for their menu. Therefore it does seem possible that this kind of baked pancake was named after Bismarck.
References to "German Pancake"
In an attempt to find any hints when the names of German Pancake and/or Dutch Baby started to be used, I did a search through google books. While I couldn’t find anything on Dutch Babies from the 19th or early 20th century, I did find two sources that mention German pancakes.
One reference was in the Clinical Reporter, Volume 8 from 1894. Heinrich Stern mentions in his article “The Rational Diabetic Flour” that flour for diabetics is easily digestible if served as a German pancake. Unfortunately, he only says that everybody knows how to make this pancake leaving it open if it is a pancake how it is prepared in Germany or indeed a Dutch Baby Pancake.
In “The ‘Settlement’ Cookbook” compiled by Mrs. Simon Kander from 1915, I found no less than four different recipes for German Pancakes. No 4 sounds most like a Dutch Baby pancake to me, while No 1 resembles the pancakes I know from Germany. Though, who makes only one pancake?
In conclusion, if you visit Germany be aware that pancakes there are offered as a dessert and not for breakfast. They will be more like a crêpe and not as fluffy as an American pancake.
If you are German and you are traveling in the US, remember that pancakes are a breakfast food and are lighter and fluffier and served with syrup. If you order “German pancake” they will bring you a big souflé kind of baked pancake.
If you want to try all three pancakes to find out which one you like the best, you can try the following recipes. I can’t vouch for any of them since I only eat German-style pancakes.
