Skip to content
whisksweetly
Home Recipes About Contact

By course

By method

German Potato Pancakes

Kartoffelpuffer: lacy, deep-golden, crisp to the edge. The trick is wringing the potatoes dry and reclaiming the starch.

Prep
25 min
Cook
20 min
Makes
Makes 12 pancakes
Jump to the recipe
Two potato pancakes on a plate with a bowl of apple sauce
Photo: congerdesign / Pixabay

There is one step that separates a lacy, crisp Kartoffelpuffer from a heavy gray disc, and almost every recipe mentions it in passing as though it were optional. Wring the grated potato dry. Not pat, not drain — twist it in a dish towel until liquid stops running, then twist harder.

Then do the part that most recipes leave out. Let the drained liquid stand for two minutes and you will find a dense white layer of potato starch at the bottom of the bowl. Pour off the water, scrape that starch back into the potatoes. It is the binder. With it you need barely any flour; without it you need three tablespoons, and flour is what makes a potato pancake taste of pancake instead of potato.

Fry in more oil than feels reasonable — half a centimeter, not a slick — and do not press them down. Pressing squeezes out the air pockets that make the edges lacy. Spread each spoonful thin and leave it alone until the underside is properly brown.

Apple sauce on the side is not a garnish in Germany, it is the point. If you want something savoury alongside instead, creamy mushroom sauce works surprisingly well.

Close-up of crisp golden potato pancakes
Photo: manfredrichter / Pixabay

Traditional potato pancakes, printed

Kartoffelpuffer: lacy, deep-golden, crisp to the edge. The trick is wringing the potatoes dry and reclaiming the starch.

For the pancakes, and to serve

Ingredients

  • 2 lb (900 g) floury potatoes, peeled
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, or less if the starch is reclaimed
  • 1½ tsp fine salt
  • ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
  • Neutral oil, for frying

To serve

  • Apple sauce
  • Sour cream and chives

How to make crispy potato pancakes

  1. 1 Grate the potatoes and the onion on the coarse side of a box grater, straight into a bowl of cold water. The onion is not only for flavor — its acidity slows the potatoes browning while you work.
  2. 2 Drain, then tip everything into the center of a clean dish towel. Gather the corners and wring it out over a bowl until no more liquid comes. Twist again.
  3. 3 Leave the collected liquid to stand 2 minutes. Pour off the water and scrape the white starch from the bottom of the bowl back into the potatoes.
  4. 4 Mix in the egg, flour, salt and nutmeg. Work quickly; the mixture greys within about 10 minutes.
  5. 5 Heat 5 mm of oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high until a shred of potato sizzles immediately. Drop in heaped tablespoons and spread each one thin with the back of the spoon.
  6. 6 Fry 3–4 minutes a side, until deep brown and crisp at the edges. Drain on a rack, not paper — paper steams the underside soft.

Potato variety and holding them warm

  • Floury potatoes only. Waxy varieties hold their water and never crisp.
  • Keep cooked pancakes in a 120°C oven on a rack while you fry the rest. They hold 20 minutes without softening.

Heavy, gray or falling apart

Too much liquid left in the potatoes, which then needed extra flour to hold together. Wring harder and use the reclaimed starch instead of flour.

Yes, and it is much faster, but the shreds are shorter and the lacy edges suffer a little. A box grater gives the better texture.

No. Grated potato oxidises within minutes and it makes no difference to the taste or the finished color once fried.