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Dessert

Leipzeger Pancakes

A sweet pancake made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, cream, butter, yeast, wine spirits, and flour, filled with jam and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Leipzeger Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately until well combined.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, warmed cream, butter, yeast, and spirits of wine.

  3. Mix in enough sifted flour to create a thick batter.

  4. Let the batter rise for 30 minutes.

Shape and fill

  1. Roll out the batter thinly and cut into rounds or oblong pieces.

  2. Spread jam or marmalade on half of the pieces.

  3. Fold the pieces.

  4. Let rise again.

Fry

  1. Fry the filled pancakes in boiling lard or butter until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together701 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness, and help bind the batter.
Egg whites
Whipped into the batter to add lightness and help it rise.
Fresh yeast
Leavens the batter so the pancakes puff during the rise.
Flour
Provides structure so the thick batter holds its shape when rolled and folded.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Clarified butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb, and browns during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the filled pancakes. The lard or butter must be boiling hot so the outside browns and crisps quickly while the inside cooks through. If the fat is too cool, the pancakes absorb grease and turn heavy and soggy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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