Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Pancakes {Palatschinken}

If you love both pancakes and ice cream, you’ll go crazy for this unique combination: vanilla ice cream pancakes! Not only do they look incredible, but they taste like summertime in a bite.

A thin pancake dough filled with delicious vanilla bean ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and refined with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles! A heavenly dessert!

This article will give you the tools to make your own batch of mouthwatering vanilla ice cream pancakes: what ingredients you’ll need, step-by-step instructions on how to prepare them, and how to customize your pancakes to make them even more delicious.

So, if you’re ready for a breakfast adventure, let’s dive into the sweetest pancakes around, vanilla ice cream pancakes.

September 26 is National Pancake Day!

🥘 Ingredients

• Flour - all-purpose or cake flour
• Eggs - 
• Vanilla sugar - store-bought or homemade
• Salt
• Milk
• Vanilla Ice Cream - homemade or store-bought
• Oil, cooking spray, or ghee - for frying
• Powdered sugar - for dusting
• Whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and chocolate chips or chocolate sprinkles - for garnishing

See the recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

Step 1

The first step is to prepare the pancake dough. The easiest way to do this is to use a kitchen machine. 

Take the mixing bowl of your kitchen machine and add flour, eggs (2 eggs and one egg yolk), vanilla sugar, salt, and milk.

Use the whisk attachment and mix the ingredients until smooth. Make sure that you get a thin batter. If it becomes too tough and thick, dilute it with milk if necessary. 

Step 2

Now strain the pancake mix through a close-meshed sieve into a separate bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes. 

Step 3

Once the 20 minutes are over, it's time to bake the pancakes! 

Add a little oil to a large frying pan (or crêpe pan). You really don't need much here. There should never be a layer of oil in the pan! Just enough so that the bottom of the pan is a bit oily.

Heat the oil and pour a tad of the pancake batter into the pan. To make thin pancakes, you need just enough batter so that when you swirl the pan, and the batter spreads in the pan, you create a thin layer, not a thick layer like regular pancakes.

It may take a few tries to get the right amount out. When I haven't made pancakes in a while, it also happens to me that I get too much batter. So no worries! They taste delicious anyway!

Now fry the pancakes over medium-low heat until they turn golden brown on both sides. 

Afterward, stack the finished pancakes on top of each other and keep them warm in the oven at the lowest temperature. 

Step 4

Serve these tasty pancakes with ice cream and chocolate sauce! To serve, take one of the warm pancakes out of the oven and lay it flat on a plate. 

Now place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on one half of the pancake and fold the other half over it.

Drizzle chocolate sauce over the folded pancake and garnish the finished vanilla ice cream pancake with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Roasted almond flakes or fresh strawberries also pair very well with ice cream pancakes!

Dust with powdered sugar.

Serve immediately afterward, and enjoy!

🍑 Variations

Vary the filling for the pancakes to your liking. You can use different types of ice cream (like strawberry ice cream or chocolate ice cream), different kinds of jam (currant, apricot, strawberry, blackberry, etc.), curd, fruits, nuts, and much more. 

Here you can unleash your creativity! Let me know what fabulous creations you have discovered, and tag @combinegoodflavors! I look forward to it!

🍽 Equipment

• Kitchen machine
• Non-stick frying pan
• Spatula
• Ice cream scoop
• Mixing cup or mixing bowl (with beak for pouring)
• Close meshed sieve

🌡 Storage

Finished pancakes freeze beautifully and stay good for up to six months. 

So if you love eating Austrian pancakes, I recommend making three to four times the amount and then freezing these delicacies. 

A tip: stack the cooled pancakes in a freezer bag and form a small tower. Freeze them with a sheet of parchment or baking paper in between each one. 

More delicious recipes for you to try

• Austrian Kaiserschmarrn (torn pancakes)
• The best 94 Pancake Recipes
• How to make Apple Compote
• Buchteln (Austrian Filled Sweet Rolls)
• Easy Vanilla Sauce
• Pink Pancakes (created by xoxobella.com)

🥞 Difference between American pancakes and Austrian pancakes

American pancakes

The rather sweet pancakes are often an essential part of an American breakfast. They are especially popular with maple syrup and butter or a savory version with fried bacon and sausage.

American pancakes are much smaller than Austrian pancakes. But they are thicker and fluffier.

Austrian pancakes - Palatschinken

In Austria, pancakes (Palatschinken) are rarely seen at breakfast but only as a dessert. They are filled with fruit, ice cream, jam, chocolate, nuts, and many other delicious sweet ingredients. Rarely is the pancake filled with spicy ingredients.

In a slightly different composition, Palatschinken in Austria is also cut into strips after baking out and used as a soup garnish as so-called Fritatten. 

Yes, and the name Palatschinke is Austrian as well. If we are glancing over at our German neighbors, you can find this delicacy under the name Pfannkuchen. 

🧐 Austrian Pancakes (Palatschinken) History

Palatschinken derives from the Latenian "placenta" (cake). Via Romanian "placinta", Hungarian "palatsinta" and Slavic "palatsinka" the word came to Vienna. Like the word, the dish itself can be traced back to the Romans, as pancakes were eaten (possibly as a substitute for bread) as early as 2000 years ago. 

In Viennese cookbooks, however, the name "Palatschinke" appears very late, towards the end of the 19th century.

Source: Vienna History Wiki

If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.

📖 Recipe

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⛑️ Food Safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

For further information, check Safe Food Handling - FDA.