Question: While vacationing in Southern California, we stopped to eat a Saturday breakfast at Diner 101 in Encinitas. We fell in love with the Apple German Pancakes served there and are wondering if you can get the recipe for us. They are delicious!
- Linda Lowe, Forest Lake, Minn.
Answer: More than likely the poinsettias that decorated your home during the holiday season were trucked from Encinitas, the former "Flower Capital of the World," because 90 percent of all poinsettias grown in the United States are grown in the newly created coastal city, 25 miles north of downtown San Diego. In 1986, the communities of Olivenhain, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Old Encinitas, New Encinitas and Leucadia combined under incorporation with 51,000 residents to become Encinitas.
In the cliffs along the coast are canyons, gullies and notches, eroded over millions of years. To the north are La Costa and Carlsbad, to the east Rancho Santa Fe, and to the south, Solana Beach. Mediterranean, Cape Cod and wood-and-glass beach houses dot the area, where small cottages cost upward of $300,000.
On Highway 101, the scenic ocean route that joins the coastal communities forming Encinitas, is Diner 101, a hole in the wall that has become an institution on the main "drag." The diner's unique, custardlike Apple German Pancake, which is baked in an omelet pan with an oven-proof handle to prevent burned fingers, is served sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or drizzled with powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice.
*****
RECIPE
APPLE GERMAN PANCAKES
1 unpeeled Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt margarine in an omelet pan with an oven-proof handle (or a 8-inch non-stick skillet with heat proof handle) over low heat. Add apples and saute 2 minutes. In small bowl combine milk and eggs and beat lightly to blend. Place flour in mixing bowl and stir in egg mixture. Pour batter over apples in omelet pan and bake on lower shelf of oven 8 minutes. Pancake will brown slightly as it climbs up the sides of the pan, but it will fall upon removal from the oven. Flip pancake over and bake 4 minutes. Place pancake on plate and serve immediately. Makes 1 large pancake.