German potato pancakes, or Kartoffelpuffer, used to be my favourite food at my grandparents’ house. My grandmother had learnt it from her German mother-in-law and usually had them ready when the grandchildren were over. I only learnt much later that Kartoffelpuffer are generally a popular food with children, because besides being a savoury dish, they can also be served with sugar and apple sauce. And what child wouldn’t like that?
That’s the cool thing about the pancakes. Depending on your mood, you can make them as a light lunch and serve them with salad. Or if you’re feeling frisky and crave some sugar (me, always), you can sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and serve them with apple sauce.
Over the years I tried to perfect the pancakes the same way my grandmother used to make them. The ingredients are unbelievably easy: potatoes, onions, flour, oil and salt. But somehow the ones I made always tasted slightly different than what I remembered. When I asked my mother what could be different, she said: “That’s easy. Your grandmother didn’t use oil, but lard.” And true, I never considered to use lard, because it’s not really something I have ready in my kitchen. I tried it out with lard once and it does taste slightly different to oil, but since I’ve gotten used to cooking the pancakes with sunflower oil in the meantime, I decided to keep it that way. With its neutral flavour, sunflower oil is a good alternative and doesn’t take away from the potato taste.
When doing research on this, I noticed that many traditional Kartoffelpuffer recipes add eggs. I prefer it without it for the simple reason that the pancakes become much more crispy! And crispy food is just more delightful to eat. It also makes the dish vegan, so there’s that! If you’d like a glutenfree version of this, you can leave out the flour. You need to be a bit more careful when frying the batches because the flour helps keeping it together, but the taste stays just the same!
Peel the potatoes and grate them into medium-sized slices. Put the grated potatoes into a clean kitchen towel and wring out any kind of fluid. This helps to make the pancakes cripsy.
Peel and grate the onions the same way and mix them with the wringed out potatoes. Add the flour and the salt and mix well.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. In batches, add 2 tablespoons of the potatoes into the skillet and form them to a pancake. Press to flatten. Cook for about 4 minutes (until the sides turn golden), then flip over and cook for another 4 minutes. Stack the finished pancakes on a covered plate or inside an oven to keep them warm.
Sweet version: Sprinkle with cinammon and sugar on top and serve with apple sauce.
Savoury version: Add pepper and salt to taste. Can be served with salad or as a side to, for instance, chicken.
