Priscilla Totiyapungprasert|Arizona Republic
My friend and I once crashed a wedding reception in Germany for Kaiserschmarrn.
The Austrian dessert, also popular in Bavaria and Hungary, consists of fluffy, shredded pancake. It's often served in a pan, dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkled with raisins, sometimes sliced almonds and fruit. A side of compote, usually plum, apple or lingonberry, accompanies the dish.
Kaiserschmarrn comes from the German words "Kaiser,"referring to Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I who apparently was a fan of the dish, and "Schmarren,"a scrambled or shredded dish. The dessert is important enough to get its own designated tent, which looks like a giant gingerbread castle, at Oktoberfest in Germany.
The wedding reception we crashed was several years ago at Bamberger Haus, a restaurant and beer garden in a park in Munich, less than 60 miles from the Austrian border. I was there for friends' moving away party and the server told us they were out of ingredients for Kaiserschmarrn because the restaurant used it all up for a wedding party.
Instead of accepting this fate, I persuaded one friend to be the Owen Wilson to my Vince Vaughn in this milder version of "Wedding Crashers." That's how I came face to face with the bride, who gave us her blessing and gestured to the most massive pan of Kaiserschmarrn I have ever seen in my life.
It was the size of a kiddie pool. We loaded up some plates and scurried away.
It wasn't the first time I had gone above and beyond for Kaiserschmarrn, and it definitely won't be the last.
On another occasion, my friends and I wandered the damp streets at night trying to remember the beer hall near the train station where we had a pleasantly caramelized and nutty Kaiserschmarrn.
Once I hopped solo on a train south to Mayerhofen, a ski town in the Austrian province of Tyrol. After hitting the slopes, I got lost on a snowy quest to find someone's recommendation for the best Kaiserschmarrn in town. I blame the après ski Schnapps for clouding my sense of direction.
Finally, a friend, whose family owned a long-standing Vietnamese restaurant in Munich, made me Kaiserschmarrn in his home kitchen, because what better send-off from the city I love than with one of my favorite food discoveries there?
What I mean to say is, I am willing to go to great lengths for Kaiserschmarrn and, thankfully, my friends probably would too.
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This isolating pandemic has made me nostalgic for the comfort foods of my past, which are connected to the people who made them comforting. I long for a perfect winter day with my friends and trekking through the snow to a hut on the Bavarian Alps, where we warm up with cups of Glühwein, savorybowls of Pfannkuchensuppe and, of course, a pan of Kaiserschmarrn.
Instead, this December, I learned how to make Kaiserschmarrn for the first time. I sent a photo to every friend mentioned above, with the message that I'll make it for them in person one day.
Recipe: How to make Kaiserschmarrn
This is an adaptation of several recipes plus my own judgment, which is hit or miss in the kitchen, but worked out this time around.
While you could make it using just the stovetop, my friend in Germany says baking it partly in the oven is what gives the pancake its fluffiness.
I also deviated from tradition based on personal preference (using dried blueberries instead of raisins) and whatever I had in the pantry. Since I didn't have vanilla beans, I made vanilla sugar mixing half a cup of cane sugar with one tablespoon of vanilla extract. I also did not have sliced almonds to toast, so I toasted crushed walnuts from leftover banana nut bread.
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 4 egg whites
- 3 Tbsps. vanilla sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsps. melted butter, plus 1 Tbsp. for caramelizing(optional)
- Dried raisins or blueberries
- Toasted almond slices or crushed walnuts
- Applesauce or compote(I suggest plum, apple or cranberry)
- Powdered sugar
- A bit of extra butter for greasing the pan
- A bit of sugar for caramelizing (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Mix flour and milk. In a separate container, mix egg yolks, vanilla sugar, salt and melted butter. Slowly pour flour and milk batter into the egg yolk mixture, mixing as you go.
In a separate container, whip egg whites until you can tip bowl and the foam doesn't slide out. (This took me somewhere around five minutes with an electric, handheld mixer, starting with a low-speed setting and ending with one speed setting higher).
Stir foam carefully into batter using a spatula. Do not overmix — you should be able to see some little bubbles in the batter.
Grease bottom and sides of a nonstick, oven-safe pan and heat on stove over medium heat. Pour batter into pan and let it cook for 1-2 minutes. Then place pan in oven and bake for about 7-8 minutes.
Remove pan from the oven and use a spatula toslice the pancake into quarters. Flip the quarters so the toasty side is facing up. Put the pancake back in the oven and continue baking for 2-3 minutes.
If you want to caramelize, the next part moves pretty quickly. Turn stove on to high heat and move pan from oven to stove. Immediately shred the pancake using a spatula into bite-sized pieces. Drizzle a tablespoon of melted butter and sugar, gently scrambling the pieces.
Take off heat and plate, unless serving in pan. Sprinkle powdered sugar, dried blueberries and toasted walnut crumble on top.
Serve warm with a side of applesauce.
Reach the reporter at Priscilla.Totiya@azcentral.com. Follow @priscillatotiya on Twitter and Instagram.
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