Swiss Egg Pancakes

Great Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes and a Love Story

Valentines Day may be over but I always like a love story and true love stories are the best. And when you can tie it in to good food it's even better! :)

I'm lucky enough to have known my great grandparents and I love hearing stories about their lives. My great grandpa Otto Schloss grew up in Germany and I loved to hear his German accent when he talked. One Sunday in June of 1925, Otto was at church. He sang in the choir which meant his seat was up at the front facing the congregation and he could see who came in. A beautiful young lady came in that had never been there before and Otto turned to his friend sitting next to him and said pointing "See that pretty girl? I'm going to marry her." His friend was very skeptical as they didn't even know who the girl was. After the meeting, Otto rushed to find the girl but she had left. Otto was crushed. He kept a vigilant eye out the following Sunday but the girl wasn't there.

The girl was Rosa Mundwiler, she was from Switzerland and she was going with her foster parents to immigrate to America and had stopped at church in Germany before they went on the boat. If their plan had gone through, Otto and Rosa would have never met but fate had a different plan. Pappa Dietrich, Rosa's foster father, was a hunchback and when they went to get on the boat the immigration officers would not let them go. So two weeks later they happened to come back to the church where Otto was and as soon as the meeting was over he made sure to greet them. The following Thursday was a holiday and his church Branch was having an outing in a park so Otto invited the couple and their daughter to come. He got to know Rosa and got her address in Switzerland. They wrote to each other and Otto called it "Love at first sight."

A year later Rosa her sister Hannah and Hanna's husband Fritz went to America. They sponsored Otto and he arrived in America January 24th 1927. Then, on February 5th, 1929 Otto and Rosa got married. Their "honeymoon" was to go to a movie and after the movie they found a black and white kitten which they kept as a "wedding present."

Otto and Rosa as newlyweds in 1929 and at their 50th anniversary in 1979

 Ahh Love!

On to the Egg pancakes! My dad said he grew up calling them "Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes" as it was a recipe from Rosa. I remembered them from when I was little and tried looking the recipe up online, figuring that "Egg Pancake" would bring up what I wanted. The recipes I found however were not like what I had remembered though so this very morning I called up my dad and got the recipe!

All the ingredients laid out, and the handwritten recipe

 I have to say that those beautiful roses are a Valentine's Day present from my husband - very special for us, he doesn't get flowers for me all that often and so I really appreciate it.

You need a cup that has a lid. The lids I have came with some sippy cups, I think you can find them with tupperware stuff also. You want a lid that seals well.

Of course this recipe is great for little helpers

Into the cup goes 1/3 cup milk

And 2 Tbsp. Flour

 I have these wonderful cute little spoons that have a Pinch, a Smidge and a Dash. If you don't have these just do a few shakes of salt from a salt shaker.

 Krissy has an easier time hitting an egg with a knife and then opening it rather than trying to crack it. When trying to crack it she usually doesn't hit it hard enough so she has to hit it more and she ends up smashing it to smithereens. However you crack an egg, make sure you put 2 in the cup.

 Now for the best part! Put the lid on and shake it all up! The kids loved doing this part and I've found that if they help out making the food their more likely to eat it.

fun action photo from the shake up

 Spray your pan or skillet (I love my cast iron skillet) with non stick cooking spray. Then, put a small dollop of butter in the pan and let it melt. ( I didn't worry about measuring the butter but if you want to be picky, I would say 1 tsp)

 You want the heat a little under medium. Often I will heat up my pan and then turn the temperature down just a bit more, especially with the cast iron as it will get too hot the longer I cook.

 Take the lid off the cup and pour the egg mixture in! So easy this is Krissy pouring in what she shook up.

 Allow the pancake to cook for about 3 minutes. As it cooks, pull up on the edges allowing the uncooked batter to run down as shown in the picture. By doing this, the middle will be cooked through. I did a good job with this first one but some of the other ones I rushed so they broke up a bit.

 After letting the middle batter flow off and under, let it cook just a little more and then flip it to cook on the other side for about 3 more minutes. Doesn't it look nice and golden!

Mr. Wisk thinks it looks great!

 A trick I do with all pancakes (egg or traditional flap jack variety) is to keep them in the oven while I cook them up so they stay warm otherwise the first one can be quite cold when all is said and done. I do this by setting my oven to around 250° and once it's warmed up nicely, even before it reaches the temperature I set it to, I turn it off. The oven will keep the food warm but not cook it more. Do keep in mind that you will probably need to use a hot pad to get the plate of pancakes out of the oven since it will have warmed up considerably.

 See, you just open the oven, toss the pancake on the plate and then you can close the oven and cook up some more!

 We've found that especially when it comes to the kids, using a pizza cutter is brilliant for pancakes - you can cut through the whole thing rather quickly and it's even safe enough for them to help out a bit too. The egg pancakes are a consistency such that you can use your fork to cut them up a piece at a time if you wish.

 One of the greatest things about these pancakes is they can be sweat or savory. You can serve them with butter, jam, or syrup. The kids loved them with syrup. You can also eat them with bacon or sausages, or as my Dad loves to do - with ketchup! Yep, my Dad is one of those ketchup on everything type of guys. So I had mine this morning the way he traditionally has his, one half with syrup, the other half with ketchup.  They were wonderful and brought back a lot of memories. They will definitely be on the breakfast rotation, especially since they're something the kids will eat.

Now that I've shown it to you with all the fun pictures, here's the recipe all written out if you wanted a copy.

Great Grandma's Swiss Egg Pancakes
Makes 1 pancake
Ingredients
1/3 Cup Milk
2 heaping Tablespoons Flour
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt
Nonstick pan spray
Butter

Put the milk, flour, eggs and salt in a cup that has a lid. Seal the lid well and shake up. Heat frying pan on medium/low heat. Spray the pan with nonstick spray then add 1 tsp. of butter.  Pour batter from cup into the pan. Let cook for 3 minutes. Lift the edge of the pancake so that the batter in the middle runs off the side then cook 1 min. more. Flip pancake and cook for 3 minutes on other side. If making more, get ready in cup and shake up while other pancake is cooking. Keep warm in oven that has been preheated then turned off. Serve with syrup, jam, butter or ketchup.