Austrian-style crepes for holiday breakfast or dessert

A delicious apricot jam adds just enough sweetness to Austrian-style crepes for a delicious holiday breakfast or dessert.
A delicious apricot jam adds just enough sweetness to Austrian-style crepes for a delicious holiday breakfast or dessert.

Whenever I think of special occasions from my childhood, one of the dishes that always comes to mind is the palatschinken, literally “pancakes with filling” in the Austrian dialect, that my mother or grandmother made as a special dessert or even a breakfast dish for my sisters, brother and me. Of course, the time of year during which I ate my largest share of them seemed to be during the holiday season.

It felt like I could never get enough of them, and whenever I make them today, I still can’t. One reason is that they’re just so delicious. The other is that these traditional Austrian pancakes are very thin and light, much closer to French crepes than they are to the piled-high stacks of buttermilk pancakes most Americans are used to eating.

Please give my palatschinken a try during your own festive celebrations. They are surprisingly easy to make once you get the hang of them.

The only special equipment you need is a wide nonstick frying pan (preferably a crepe pan with low, gently sloping sides that make it easier to form and turn the thin pancakes) and a thin, flexible spatula to insert under each crepe to flip it over.

The batter itself takes almost no time to prepare, as you gently whisk together a beaten egg, sugar, salt, flour, melted butter and milk to a thin, creamy consistency,

then pass it through a fine sieve to eliminate any lumps. It’s best then to let the batter rest at least an hour or, even better, overnight, which not only enhances tenderness by relaxing the gluten that forms through whisking but also allows the ingredients to intermingle and their flavors to subtly develop.

Cooking the pancakes is an equally easy process, once you perfect twirling the pan to coat its

butter-brushed bottom evenly with a small amount of batter. That glistening of butter becomes unnecessary with subsequent crepes you make because they will help to keep the pan lightly greased with some of the butter that you included in the batter itself.

During summer’s stone-fruit season, my mom and grandma made fresh apricot compote to fill the

palatschinken. But they also put up jars of preserves that we used for the filling during autumn and through the winter into spring. So, look for your own favorite brand of apricot jam or other preserves to do the same for your own holiday treat.

I hope you’ll find my family’s recipe for Austrian-style crepes as much of a treat as I always did and still do. May they contribute to your own sweet and satisfying holiday season.

AUSTRIAN-STYLE CREPES WITH APRICOT JAM FILLING

Makes about 2 dozen pancakes, serves 8 to 12

Ingredients:

1 large cage-free egg

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon reserved for cooking

2/3 cup milk

3 cups apricot preserves or other chunky fruit preserves

Directions:

In a small stainless-steel mixing bowl, whisk the egg until lightly frothy. Whisk in the sugar and salt; then, little by little, whisk in the flour.

Continue whisking while drizzling in the 3 tablespoons of butter. Finally, still stirring with the whisk, gradually pour in the milk until a smooth batter forms.

Place a fine-meshed wire strainer over another mixing bowl. Pour the batter through the strainer to eliminate any lumps. Cover the batter with plastic wrap, and leave it in the refrigerator to rest for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight.

Before cooking the crepes, remove the batter from the refrigerator and stir briefly with the whisk to combine all the ingredients until smooth.

With a clean basting brush, brush a 12-inch nonstick frying pan with some of the reserved melted butter. Heat the pan over medium-low heat.

Ladle about 1 ounce of the batter into the pan while lifting the handle of the pan with your other hand and swirling the batter to coat the bottom of the pan thinly, but evenly, with the batter. Return the pan to the heat, and cook until golden brown, about 1 minute per side, gently turning the crepe over.

As each crepe is done, transfer to a plate, and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining batter, stacking the crepes.

While the crepes are cooking, gently warm the jam in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

When all the crepes are done, spoon 2 tablespoons of the warm jam into the center of a crepe. Roll up the crepe or fold it over twice to form a quarter-circle shape. Repeat with the remaining crepes and jam.

Arrange the crepes on individual serving plates. Hold a small, fine-meshed sieve over a plate of crepes, spoon a little confectioners’ sugar into it, and tap the sieve to dust the crepes lightly with sugar. Repeat with the remaining crepes, and serve.

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