Potato Pancakes

My wife's family is from Germany and Austria, making German food important to our Italian family.  These potato pancakes are quite tasty and will warm the heart of your family.  Enjoy them as we do.

• 2 lbs Yukon gold Potatoes - approximate weight (enough to almost fill a 7 qt food processor bowl)
• 1/2 cup sweet onions - finely chopped
• 2 whole eggs - beaten
• 4 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1-2 cups olive oil (not extra virgin)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Prepare a cookie sheet with aluminum foil for final cooking of the potato pancakes after they are done frying.  A metal grate or cookie rack on top of the foiled pan does a great job if you have one.
3. Peel and wash the potatoes, putting them into a bowl of cold water to prevent them from turning brown.
4. Shred the potatoes with a food processor until the food processor bowl is almost full.
5. Mix in the finely chopped sweet onions
6. Remove as much liquid from the potato/onion mixture as possible.  Squeeze the moisture out with your hands, paper towels, or cloth.  You must remove as much liquid from the mixture as possible, this is very important.
7. In a large bowl, beat 2 eggs, mix in the flour, baking soda, Kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.
8. Add the potato and onion mixture to the egg mixture and mix well to coat the potatoes evenly with the egg mixture.
9. Make potato pancakes that are about 3-4” in diameter and about 1/4 inch thick.  You will have to place these into the hot oil with a spatula, as they are quite fragile at this point.
10. Add enough olive oil into your frying pan so that it is about 1/8 - 3/16” deep, or just a little higher than half the height of the potato pancakes.  Heat the oil to 350 degrees. 
11. Place the potato pancakes into the frying pan one at a time, about a minute apart.  Too many potato pancakes into the pan at once will cool the oil too much.  As the edges begin to darken, flip the potato pancakes carefully using two spatulas.  It’s ok if the center of the pancakes aren’t completely cooked yet, they will finish up cooking in the oven.  Make sure that the edges of the potato pancakes don’t get too brown while frying the second side.
12. Remove browned potato pancakes from the frying pan and put them into the oven to finish up cooking as you are continuing to fry the rest.  If the batch you are making is large, turn the oven temperature down to 300 degrees as not to over cook the potato pancakes.
13. The potato pancakes will need about 10-15 minutes in the oven to finish up cooking.  Remove and sprinkle with salt and serve warm.

Best Regards,
Linda and Steve DiFranco