All big journeys start with a single step. So does our and we are happy to finally share with you the very first dessert of the sweet bucket list: the famous Austrian Kaiserschmarrn, literally translated `emperor rubbish´.
FRANZ WHO?
According to a legend, the Kaiserschmarrn has its origin in the Austrian Empire. It is said that whenever the emperor Franz Joseph I wanted to have pancakes for dessert, the chef called the `failed´ pancakes (thick and torn apart) `Schmarrn´ and gave it to the staff.
A `Schmarrn´ is an Austrian term for rubbish and is still commonly used to express a dislike of something. I would like to highlight here the great opportunity to also learn Austrian German when reading our blog. Luckily, the taste prevailed against the name and Kaiserschmarrn became one of the most famous desserts in Austria. Logic, that we as Austrians decided to present you Christian´s sweet version of the Kaiserschmarrn as our first sweet blog post.
ANY TIME IS KAISERSCHMARRN TIME
But when do you usually make Kaiserschmarrn? You can have Kaiserschmarrn as a sweet breakfast, as a proper meal for lunch or dinner, or as your dessert and grand finale. When adolescent Christian tried his first Kaiserschmarrn recipe, he immediately thought that this would be the perfect dish for a date night: ingredients are simple, fast making and you can share it with your date eating out of one pan. Isn´t that romantic?! Although I personally never experienced this kind of date night (thank you Christian), I totally agree with his view and declare the Kaiserschmarrn as the perfect dish for two and more – depending on your relationship preferences. Even if you live in a big family and you love to have your friends over at your place, Kaiserschmarrn is the perfect dish. Don´t hesitate inviting them for an imperial night and multiply the basic recipe by half of the number of people – we promise, it will become more, but not more difficult.
HOW TO PREPARE KAISERSCHMARRN
As mentioned above, the Kaiserschmarrn dough is very similiar to a pancake dough. At this point you have two possibilities:
- You try to make pancakes and hope to fail
- You follow our recipe
Ingredients for two
- 70 g wheat flour
- 125ml milk
- 2 eggs
- 25g granulated sugar
- 10g powdered sugar
- slice of butter
- pinch of salt
- vanilla bean
- handful of raisins
- shot glass of rum
- optional: granulated sugar for caramelisation
Preparation
- Pour the milk bit by bit to the flour and stir until it is a smooth mixture.
- Separate the eggs, scoop out the vanilla bean and add yolk and vanilla to the milk-flour dough.
- Beat the egg white and a pinch of salt until it is soft and foamy. Then add the granulated sugar bit by bit until it forms a firm but creamy mixture.
- Carefully fold in the beaten egg white to the milk-flour mixture and prepare a hot pan with a generous piece of butter.
- While you mix the raisins with the rum in a separate bowl, let the butter melt and bubble up in a pan.
- Pour in the mixture and after two minutes scatter the soaked raisins over the top. Place the lid on top and lower the heat. Let the Schmarrn bake until it turns firm.
- Tear the Kaiserschmarrn into four pieces and turn all upside down. After two to four minutes you can cut it into bite-sized pieces and your Schmarrn is ready for the final touch.
- Whether you eat out of a plate or a pan, there are two important things to be considered to enjoy your Kaiserschmarrn to the fullest: sprinkle it with powdered sugar through a sieve & make sure to enjoy your Kaiserschmarrn while it is still hot.
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Tips & Tricks
Last but not least, to make sure that your Kaiserschmarrn won´t be rubbish at all, we would like to share with you some useful tips:
- Butter: the goddess of taste, be generous.
- Eggs: conscious consumption – eggs from happy chicken taste better. Also, yolk in egg white is bad, egg white in yolk is ok.
- Fluffiness: don´t whip the egg white too hard, make sure to keep it soft and creamy.
- Pan lid: use a pan lid to cover the Kaiserschmarrn while baking. If you lift the lid too early, the dough collapses, make sure it is hot enough.
- Caramelisation: keep an eye on the pan and make sure that your stove is very hot.
Our Kaiserschmarrn evaluation
You might think it is pretentious but we dare to say it: this Kaiserschmarrn was one of the best we have ever tasted. Get convinced below and find out more about our tasteful experience.
- Taste: sweet dough pillow that melts on your tongue with a fruity accent from raisins soaked in rum
- Consistency: do you know the view out of an airplane window on a sunny, cloudy day? You look down to a perfect composition of cotton ball like clouds. This is how fluffy the Kaiserschmarrn is. Side note to those who also grew up with the happy bears, Glücksbärchi in German: I am still imagining to take the clouds as slides and jump from one to another.
- Smell: buttery, sugary, so good that you would like to use it as a perfume but are afraid that all wasps would follow you wherever you go.
See, the Austrian heritage can be easily celebrated at home. All you need is to believe in yourself. However, in case of any doubt in yourself or any question feel free to leave a comment here or write us on instagram. We are happy to help and look forward to your feedback.
Also, we would love to hear about your recommendations for our next stop. Do you have a favourite dessert or place to be? Then tell us and we will check it out!
