Rollpfannkuchen is Just Another Name for Crepes (or Gluten Free Vegan Crepes)

What to do? Should you spread your crepes with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon or roll them up with Nutella? A sweetly delicious dilemma. (Skip to recipe.)

Who doesn't like pancakes?

Let me rephrase that: Show me a kid (and that includes kids-at-heart) who doesn't like pancakes and I'll eat my...my...I'll eat my...frying pan. (But I'll need some maple syrup on that, please.)

When my kids were small I never got louder cheers to the answer of "What's for supper, Mom?" than when I said "Pancakes". That was always the magic answer - it banished any afterschool grumpiness in one two-syllable word. I was Popular-Mom on those days. (Pancakes for supper were much cooler than pancakes for breakfast in our house.)

Nobody needed to know that pancakes on the menu was usually a direct result of mom-forgetting-to-plan and quickly pulling something from the air, er, cupboard.

My kids loved all kinds of pancakes: banana-buckwheat, apple, cottage cheese, potato, plain,whole wheat, coconut, buttermilk, and those with who-knows-what kind of leftovers thrown in. But I think their very favourite of all were Rollpfannkuchen. And just in case you think those were some fancy-schmancy gourmet creations, they weren't. Rollpfannkuchen was just the made-up-in-our-family German translation of roll pancakes, a.k.a. crepes. They became standard special-occasion fare in our household and were highly requested by my children and all their friends for the morning-after-the-sleepover feast.

For years we ate them spread with butter, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon, then rolled up and eaten, with knife and fork or fingers, depending on the eater's age and state of hunger. Then two years ago when we were in Paris, we discovered the joy of Rollpfannkuchen (or crepes, if you insist) slathered in Nutella, hot off the street vendors' griddles. Oooh la la.

Now we are torn between two camps: the butter-brown sugar-cinnamon one and the Nutella one.

Decisions, decisions -  I can't decide - I guess I'll have to try both. Again.

The crepe recipe I used for years comes from my spattered old Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1980 printing.
It's never-fail, very basic and versatile:

Basic Crepes (RollPfannkuchen)

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (250ml) milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140gm) flour
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) melted butter

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Let rest for 30 minutes (this often doesn't happen in my house).

Pour ¼ cup batter into a greased, preheated frying pan (non-stick works best). Swirl batter around until it's a thin even layer, and cook on medium heat until lightly browned. Flip over and cook the other side.

* * * * *

Since we have discovered all the allergies in our family - gluten, corn, dairy, eggs - in some combination or other in our three oldest children, I have been trying to come up with a suitable Rollpfannkuchen version that still satisfies all our cravings. These gluten free vegan crepes are so good you won't feel deprived at all.

If you can eat eggs, feel free to use 2 eggs instead of the flax seeds and water.

Gluten Free Vegan Crepes

• 2 tablespoons  flax seeds
• 6 tablespoons (90ml) water
• ½ cup (55gm) sorghum flour
• ¼ cup (40gm) buckwheat flour
• ¼ cup (40gm) potato starch
• 1 cup (250ml) rice milk
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) melted coconut oil

Put the flax seeds and water in a blender and whirl until smooth, then add all the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Let rest for at least 30 minutes to allow the flax to thicken and do its job of binding the dough.

Ladle about ¼ cup (60ml) batter into a lightly greased crepe pan and swirl the pan to spread the batter into a thin even layer.
Cook for 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat until lightly browned on bottom. Flip over and cook the other side.

Enjoy while hot and spread with your favourite topping. Roll up and eat, licking off any drips that escape. Or you could be civilized and use a knife and fork.

But that's no fun.

Guten Appetit!

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