German Pancakes

Today I made German Pancakes. The story goes, that my mother had made my father an enormous meal, then not too long afterwards he told my mother he was starving. She told him that wasn't even possible, however he sucked in his stomach and managed to look like skin and bones. My mom promptly jumped up and made my dad these German Pancakes. That is apparently when my father knew he was going to marry my mom.
This recipe seems much more intricate than it is. While it looks pretty fancy, there honestly isn't much to it! It won't take you more than half an hour tops to make. As my friend Mary said when she commented on the sneak peek photo of the pancake I posted on Facebook, this would indeed make a great brunch additive. I made two of these today, one for my husband and one for me. However I was unable to finish mine. This might be a good item to share.

You will need:

½ c flour

½ c milk

2 eggs

Nutmeg

Butter

Lemon (or lemon juice)

Powdered Sugar
-Also make sure you have a bowl, whisk, and cast iron frying pan handy

It's a good idea to preheat your oven to 480 degrees Fahrenheit before you make your batter, as it can take quite a while to get that hot.

As you know you should always crack your eggs individually, so if there is a bad egg in the batch you don't spoil all your other ingredients.

Take your 2 eggs...

...and beat them until they're frothy.

Add half a cup of milk.

Beat it again.

Sprinkle in some nutmeg.

Measure out your half cup of flour.

Add it to your egg and milk mixture.

And that's it! Your batter is ready.

Make sure you have 3 table spoons of butter ready.

Heat your cast iron frying pan on the stove on medium temperature and add your butter.

Once your butter has melted...

...add your batter to the frying pan.

Put the whole thing in the oven and bake it for around 12 minutes.

Don't they look beautiful?

Sprinkle liberally with lemon juice, either fresh or bottled. My mother would be aghast at my use of bottled juice in favor of fresh lemons, but sometimes you just have to be practical.

Now throw a bunch of powdered sugar on it.

And boom! You're done! It really is pretty simple! I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear back from anyone how you liked the recipe, was it easy to follow, and/or do you have a similar recipe?


As always I'm giving you the quickie summary right here:

Ingredients needed:

½ c Flour

½ c Milk

2 Eggs

Nutmeg

Butter

Lemon
Powdered Sugar

Preparation:

Mix flour, milk, nutmeg and eggs together, and whisk until frothy

Preheat oven to 480

Heat cast iron skillet and melt 3 T butter in the pan.

Pour batter into the pan and bake in oven, on the lowest rung/rack for 12 minutes +-.

Remove from oven, transfer to plate, sprinkle with powdered sugar and the juice of half a lemon.

Lemon Bars

Since I worked Saturday and today in addition to my regular shifts, I figured I would do a quick and dirty recipe. Lots of bang for your buck though. I learned this lemon bar recipe from one of the cooks at the retirement home I worked at when we lived in Portland. It's still one of my favorite ones. I hope you'll like it.

Here's what you'll need:

2 sticks butter (8 oz)

2 cups flour

½ c confectioner’s sugar (powdered)
4 beaten eggs

4 T flour

¼ c lemon juice

1 T grated lemon peel

2 c sugar

As you can see in the picture I am also using bottled lemon juice. If you can use fresh pressed, is always worth it, however if you're pressed for time, or just too tired to care you can absolutely use the bottled juice. Most people won't notice. If you can, the lemon zest is really worth it, and does give a stronger lemon flavor, but I have also made these lemon bars successfully without. Personal choice then.

The lemon bars are made in two layers with different baking time. The bottom part of the lemon bar tastes like shortbread and has that type of consistency. The top layer is ooey gooey sweet lemon.

To make the first layer pull out your flour, powdered sugar, and two sticks of butter.

Cut your butter into smaller pieces and add to your mixer.

Add half a cup of powdered sugar.

Blend the sugar and butter.

Next add the two cups of flour.

Start blending the ingredients slowly so you don't have a flour explosion in your kitchen. You may have to scrape some of the butter mix off of the side of the mixing bowl in between.
Shoot for this consistency:

Take all of the dough and add it to a rectangular baking dish.

As you can see it doesn't look like a lot of dough and you might be worried that you won't be able to cover the pan entirely, but you can. Put pieces in all of the corners and center and start smushing them down. I use my knuckles, and then smooth it over with a spatula. A thin layer is all you need.

Place the dish in your preheated oven at 325 fahrenheit. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the bottom layer is baking it's time to start mixing up the batter for the top layer.
Crack your four eggs. Always crack each egg in a separate bowl before adding them to the mixing bowl. This will prevent the other ingredients being spoiled if there is a bad egg in the batch.

I didn't use 5 eggs, one of my eggs just happened to have a double yolk.

Add 4 tablespoons of flour.

Add 2 cups of sugar.

Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

Grab two lemons. Make sure you clean the peel properly.

Now zest the peel.

This looks to be at least 1 tablespoon, and is your final ingredient.

Add the zest to your other ingredients in your mixer. I usually scrape the first dough out really well, but don't wash it before making the lemon batter. It works just fine since they are all going to be mixed anyway.

Blend it all really well until it looks somewhat like this:

Once the twenty minutes are up, pull the first layer out of your oven.

Pour your lemon mix on top.

Return to the oven and bake for another 22 minutes.

I recommend letting it cool for a while before you start cutting it into bars. You can make them any size you want. I made larger ones, but you could also cut it into really little squares and make each one bite-sized. I've made them like that before for a fancy tea party.

I hope you enjoy these lemon bars as much as we do. I posted a picture of this, and immediately got a response from a friend who will come visit to snag some lemon bars tomorrow. Jep, I'm talking about you Mary! ;)




And here is the condensed recipe:

Ingredients needed:

2 sticks butter (8 oz)

2 cups flour

½ c confectioner’s sugar (powdered)

4 beaten eggs

4 T flour

¼ c lemon juice

1 T grated lemon peel

2 c sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 325f

Blend butter, 2 c flour and ½ c powdered sugar

Pat into ungreased 13x9x2 inch pan

Bake for 20 minutes

Blend Eggs, 4 T flour, 2 c sugar, lemon juice and peel.

Pour over first layer after it has been baked for 20 minutes, then return to the oven and bake for another 22 minutes.