I am sorry I have been absent for a while. I am afraid that it will be a little  more quiet on seitanismymotor for the next couple of weeks. Nothing serious, just a pile of work to do followed by holidays. Please bear with me.  And enjoy some pancakes.

Milk, flour, sugar, butter, and eggs are the ingredients of what we Germans call pfannkuchen (pancakes), eierkuchen (eggcakes), or palatschinken (from Hungarian palacsinta). Although they are made the same way as American pancakes, they usually don’t contain baking powder and they are much larger than American pancakes. They are sort of a fat crêpe.

Pfannkuchen are not a breakfast food and instead are served for dessert or as a sweet lunch. They are a very convenient and cheap food, because they are made of ingredients which can be found in everyone’s pantry and fridge. They are an easy food because you don’t even need a recipe for them (at least that’s how everybody I know makes them).

Until two years ago, I had a love/hate relationship with pancakes. I loved palatcsinta, (or palatschinken as the Austrians call them) the Hungarian (or East European/Austrian) version of pancakes. When I stayed in Hungary a couple of years ago, I fell in love with a palatcsinta version that was filled with ground nuts and raisins. At home I hated pancakes. Here in Saxony they are called eierkuchen, which means egg cakes, and the eggs in the batter always bothered me because I could taste them even in the cooked pancake. And even in my pre-vegan days I wasn’t a huge fan of eggs.

In my family pancakes were traditionally served with applesauce and sugar:

With canned blueberries:

Or simply with strawberry jam:

When I was a child, my grandmother used to cook pancakes, usually on a Friday and to make them edible I covered them in huge amounts of sugar and applesauce. When I grew older and my father made them for us, I still hadn’t changed my mind about them.

To make a long and boring story short: When I became vegan, everything changed. Live is better and I love pfannkuchen because they now are cruelty-free and very tasty.

If you search the internet for pfannkuchen recipes, a lot of people who post their recipes of and give advice on pfannkuchen will tell you that vegan pfannkuchen are not possible. They will tell you that eggs are essential for this recipe. They will tell you that pfannkuchen without eggs are doomed to fail. Well, all you people, you are wrong. Although the eggs usually give pfannkuchen their texture, keep the pancake together, and work as a raising agent, they can be easily substituted. Soy flour, baking powder, and bottled sparkling water make a perfect substitute. (I owe the sparkling water trick to my grandmother.) The trick is to add the water right before cooking the pancake to make them even fluffier.

Here’s my ultimate pancake recipe (Yes, a recipe. For pancakes):

Pfannkuchen (makes 6-7 7 inch pancakes):

4 T soy flour
1/2 t baking powder
200 g flour (1 1/2 cups +2 1/2 T)
2 T sugar
1 pinch salt
130 ml soy milk (1/2 cup + 2 t)
260 ml bottled sparkling water (1 cup + 4 t)

Combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add soy milk and let rest for 30 minutes. (Important step, don’t skip it). Lightly grease and heat a non-stick pan to medium heat. Add the sparkling water to the pancake batter. Add one ladle full of batter (approx 2-3 T, depending on the size of your pan) to the pan and distribute it evenly. Cook until the edges of the pancake start pulling away from the pan and flip over. Cook the other side and transfer to a plate. Serve with one of the suggested fillings from above.

You can also use this pancake batter to make apple pancakes. Slice one or two apples into very thin slices and sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon. Pour your batter into the pan and place the slices on top. Cook as described above. Serve with more cinnamon and sugar.

Pfannkuchen (without the apples) are pretty versatile. My grandmother always made some extra and served them in soup the other day. All you need is a simple vegetable broth, one or two leftover pfannkuchen and maybe some chopped carrots and some celery or any other vegetable you like. Heat the broth, add your veggies, roll up the pancakes, slice them like a sushi log and add them to the soup. Believe me, this is delicious!