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topfenpalatschinken

Discussion in 'Recipes' started by siduri, Jan 29, 2010.

  1. Jan 29, 2010 #1
    siduri

    siduri

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    I've been going around for days with the craving for something I ate in Austria years ago. It's called, as far as i can remember the spellling, Topfenpalatschinken.
    I remember it was sweet but was used as a main dish (as apparently is not unusual in austro-hungarian cuisine) and i had the good judgement to order it and was swept away. For some reason the full memory of it came to me the other day and i can almost taste it!

    I had a recipe and can;t for the life of me find it.

    Does anyone have a good recipe? I got to a store that sells the topfen cheese, and i have lemons from my own tree for the rind (no sprays or preservatives on them) and I have sour cream, which i don't remember if it is part of the recipe or not.

    It was a relative of blintzes, that is, crepes (palatschinken) with a mildly sweet cheese filling with a taste of grated lemon rind, but they're not fried in a pan after filling, but laid in a baking dish and then a fluffly-ish topping with eggs in it is poured on top and it's baked in the oven.

    Thanks.
     
  3. Jan 29, 2010 #2
    phatch

    phatch Moderator Staff Member

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    with the schinken in the name I would think it has ham too.
     
  4. Jan 29, 2010 #3
    siduri

    siduri

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    I thought the same thing. I don;t know if i got the spelling right. It;s pronounced pah-lah-chink-en but i tried on internet to look up "topfen pala" and the first sites that came up on google finished off the word as palatschinken. I had eaten palatschinken or however you spell it, in former yugoslavia and the serbo-croatian was spelled characteristically with c with an accent on it for the ch sound. It simply means pancakes or crepes. (In yugoslavia they were served with nuts and sugar generally, not with cheese and certainly not with ham).

    I know i can find the recipe on internet, but i would rather hear from a person, who has made it, because generic internet is not reliable. I know you guys, so i feel more trusting.
     
  5. Jan 30, 2010 #4
    dc sunshine

    dc sunshine

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    Hmm interesting one Siduri. Did the browse around on the net - most fill with cherries/apricots/cheese - combinations of them. Some recipes say you can fill them with savoury. Can't help you with personal experience. Sounds strange but all the sweet ones go by the same name too. The schinken throws me.

    Wiki says this on its definition of palatschinken:

    "Crêpes can be compared to the African injera, the tortilla, the Indian Kuzhalappam and the Mexican sope. In Norwegian, it's called Pannekake, in most German regions it's Pfannkuchen, and in Dutch it's pannenkoeken. In Italy, crêpes are called crespella. In the Spanish regions of Galicia and Asturias they are traditionally served at carnivals. In Galicia they're called filloas, and may also be made with pork blood instead of milk. In Asturias they're called fayueles or frixuelos.

    In areas of Eastern Europe formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian empire, there is a thin pancake comparable to a crêpe that in Austro-Bavarian is called Palatschinken or Omletten; in Hungarian: palacsinta; and in Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Czech, Croatian and Slovene and Bosnian: palačinka; in Slovak: palacinka. In the Balkan region such as the countries of Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia, palačinka or palaçinka may be eaten with fruit jam, quark cheese, sugar, honey, or the hazelnut-chocolate cream Nutella.    "

    ...and...

    "Crêpes are made by pouring a thin liquid batter onto a hot frying pan or flat circular hot plate, often with a trace of butter on the pan's surface. The batter is spread evenly over the cooking surface of the pan or plate either by tilting the pan or by distributing the batter with an offset spatula.

    Common savoury fillings for meal crêpes include: cheese, asparagus, ham, spinach, eggs, ratatouille, mushrooms, artichoke (in certain regions), and various meat products.

    When sweet, they can be eaten as dessert. They can be filled with various sweet toppings, often including Nutella spread, sugar (granulated or powdered), maple syrup, lemon juice, whipped cream, fruit spreads, custard, and sliced soft fruits.    "

    This is a link I found to a recipe which has a meringue topping, maybe this is something close to what you had. It's not a very straightforward link, but goes into a lot of detail:

    Incredible crepes - 08 February 1996 - CatererSearch

    Hope something here helps :)
     
  6. Jan 30, 2010 #5
    siduri

    siduri

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    Thanks DC. I think the schinken in the word is not schinken but is tschinken, and is not of german origin, i think it must be from another language in the area, probably hungarian (since austria was part of the austro-hungarian empire) or maybe a slavic language from around that area. I think the spelling probably represents the way a German speaker would spell something that sounds in that way. Also, my hypothesis is borne out by the pala - so they might be pala-tschinken. Pala at least in italian, and maybe in other languages, means flat thing, like a shovel or a flat plate. Which could refer to what it's cooked on or what it looks like. But these are my guesses, from what i know generically about languages.

    But i'm not interested in palatschinken in general, which are just crepes, but in Austrian TOPFENpalatschinken. These special ones with cheese filling and a fluffy topping with egg and other stuff.

    Yes,l i did look on internet, hundreds of recipes, was just hoping someone on the forum had actually MADE some because i don;t trust recipes just posted like that, so many are not good, not tested, and random.
     
  7. Feb 14, 2010 #6
    fewls

    fewls

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    This recipe requires 10 crepes. The amounts are in European with (American) amounts in parentheses.

    Friends from Vienna made this recipe for me after a skiing trip:

    75g (2 1/2 oz) butter
    60 g (2 oz) granulated sugar
    120 g (4 oz) curd cheese
    2 eggs separated (beat the egg whites until stiff)
    1 dl (4 oz) sour cream
    60 g (2 oz) raisins

    Make your crepes in the normal way and keep hot.
    In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar, add the curd cheese and mix well. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, then the raisons, then 1/2 of the sour cream. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

    Roll up the crepes with the filling and place in an ovenproof dish and add the rest of the sour cream. Bake for 5 minutes in a hot oven and serve immediately.
     
  8. Feb 14, 2010 #7
    siduri

    siduri

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    Thanks so much Fewls. I will try it really soon, but will add a bit of lemon peel. I'm glad to get a recipe you've eaten and enjoyed - really wonderful. As the Michelin guide says, "worth a detour" - pretty expensive detour to austria, of course.