How many calories are in German pancakes?
Two German pancakes, Pfannkuchen or Eierkuchen, with a bowl of apple sauce come to about 430 kcal. Each pancake is about 185 of that. In Berlin and much of eastern Germany a Pfannkuchen is a filled doughnut, a Berliner, and this page is about the flat kind.
The plate, as served
Two pancakes of about 70 g each, made with whole milk and fried in fat, with about 100 g of apple sauce.
Where the calories come from
| Nutrient | Grams | Calories | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein | 12g | 48 | 12% |
| Carbs | 55g | 220 | 53% |
| Fat | 16g | 144 | 35% |
| Fibre | 4g | counted within carbs | |
The ring is sized by calories, not grams: protein and carbs are 4 kcal a gram, fat is 9. Drawn by grams, fat would look like a sliver of what it actually contributes.
What is on the plate
| Pancake (Pfannkuchen) x2One pancake, about 70 g | 370 kcal |
| Apple sauceA small bowl, about 100 g | 60 kcal |
The same dish, several ways
This is where the calories actually move. Not the ingredient, the cooking.
- Three pancakes615+185
The third pancake is another 185 kcal.
- With a knob of butter melted on top505+75
10 g of butter is 75 kcal.
- Two pancakes of about 70 g each, made with whole milk and fried in fat, with about 100 g of apple sauce.As served430
- Plain, no apple sauce370-60
Two pancakes on their own, about 370 kcal.
Where each number comes from
Composition tables list ingredients, not dinners. There is no row anywhere for this plate, so it is built from its parts, and the preparation assumed for each part is written next to it, because that assumption is usually worth more calories than the ingredient.
| Component | Portion and preparation | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Pancake (Pfannkuchen) x2 | One pancake, about 70 gBLS X929212 (Pfannkuchen/Eierkuchen, ungesüßt, mit Milch 3,5 % Fett, gebraten). Unsweetened batter with whole milk, fried in fat. Made with 1.5 per cent milk in a dry pan it is about 195 kcal per 100 g instead of 267 (BLS X924012). | 370 |
| Apple sauce | A small bowl, about 100 gBLS Y843143 (Apfelmus). Sweetened apple sauce. Unsweetened is 51 kcal per 100 g against 59 (BLS Y864112). | 60 |
| Total | 430 | |
Sources: German Nutrient Database BLS 4.0 (Max Rubner-Institut), CC BY 4.0. Every figure is an estimate with a range around it, and is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal rather than pretending to a precision that does not exist.
Why you will see 265 to 390 kcal quoted for this
fddb lists 133 kcal for a 65 g pancake, so two come to about 265, and an Austrian Palatschinke of 125 g is 196, about 390 for two. Those figures are pancakes without a topping and with less fat in the pan. BLS puts a pancake fried in fat at 267 kcal per 100 g, which makes ours about 185 each, and the apple sauce adds 60 on top. That is why this plate sits about 40 kcal above the published range.
Which is why this page shows the sum instead of asserting a total. Build the plate you actually eat and the number is yours rather than an average of strangers.
Build your own plateCommon questions
- How many calories are in a pancake?
- About 185 kcal for one German pancake of 70 g, made with whole milk and fried in fat. Made with 1.5 per cent milk in a dry non-stick pan, it is closer to 135.
- Is a Pfannkuchen the same as a Berliner?
- It depends where you are. In Berlin and much of the east, a Pfannkuchen is the filled doughnut. Elsewhere it is the flat pancake on this page, also called Eierkuchen, and in Austria the thin version is a Palatschinke.
- Are pancakes fine when losing weight?
- Two with apple sauce are about 430 kcal, an ordinary meal. The fat in the pan and the topping decide more than the batter.
- Which topping has the fewest calories?
- Apple sauce, at about 60 kcal for a small bowl. Unsweetened apple sauce is a little lower again, about 50.
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