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Italian Cuisine Expert and Food Blogger
Guido Pedrelli
Guido Pedrelli, the mastermind behind Nonna Box, has honed his culinary expertise for decades, inspired by family feasts in Emilia-Romagna. Mentored by his restaurateur nonna, he mastered Italian classics and furthered his skills with professional culinary studies in desserts and gelato making from Mec3. Today, he shares this rich legacy and authentic recipes through Nonna Box.
Kaiserschmarrn is a lightly sweetened shredded pancake that often contains raisins and is served with applesauce or berry compote or jam. It can be found in Trentino-Alto Adige, but originated in the royal kitchens of Austria. This dish is typically served as a dessert, but makes a delicious and filling breakfast, lunch, or snack any time of the day.
The kaiserschmarrn messy and fluffy pancake (which is definitely not the perfectly round pancake we are used to seeing!) is broken apart or ripped as it is being fried in a pan. It is then cooked with sugar until it has caramelized and sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with fruit jams or preserves.
Luckily you don’t need any special equipment to make kaiserschmarrn: a mixing bowl, a whisk and a frying pan are really all that is necessary.
The ingredients for kaiserschmarrn include: flour, sugar, milk, eggs, rum, butter, powdered sugar and your favorite jam or compote. Because the ingredients are so basic, the better quality they are, the better your kaiserschmarrn pancake will taste. So, when possible, find a local dairy with whole milk, eggs and butter and splurge on a high-quality fruit compote from your local farmers market made with the best local fruit from your area.
Add the flour and a pinch of salt to a large mixing bowl and slowly mix in the milk with a whisk.
If you want to add raisins, you can soak them in the rum before adding in the next step along with the rum.
Now add the rum (and raisins if desired), then 50 grams of the white sugar and lastly the eggs and continue to mix with the whisk.
The batter should be a runny, smooth consistency without any lumps.
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
Add all the pancake batter to the heated butter and cover. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat.
When one side is browned and has solidified, divide into several sections and flip each section to cook on the other side, cook for another 2-3 minutes (again it should be covered when cooking).
Remove the lid and gently pull and tear the kaiserschmarrn into large chunks with two forks.
Sprinkle the remaining 20 grams of white sugar over the pieces and continue to cook for a few minutes, letting the sugar caramelize.
Cover for a few more minutes and then turn and stir the shredded pancakes one last time.
Serve hot with a dusting of powdered sugar and a cup of plum compote, lingonberry or other berry jam or applesauce for topping or dipping.
Other Tyrolean desserts:
Plum compote
Applesauce
Raspberry compote
Apricot jam
Lingonberry or cranberry jam
Strawberry jam
One of the stories of how kaiserschmarrn was invented recounts that the Emperor’s wife wanted a light dessert and so one of the royal chefs prepared kaiserschmarrn, however it was not to her liking because she felt it was still too rich. Her husband ended up eating his own portion and loved it so much he ate his wife’s portion as well! His enthusiasm for the dish earned it the name “The Emperor’s mess.”
Another legend says that the Emperor and his wife were traveling through the mountains when they stopped at a local farmer’s house for a meal. The farmer got all the best ingredients he had on hand and made a rich pancake, but he was so nervous about cooking for the royals that he scrambled the pancake while cooking it. To cover up the disastrous looking dish, he added sugar and plum compote on top. Luckily the Emperor loved it!
When people hear the word pancake, they might instantly picture a breakfast or brunch dish, but the kaiserschmarrn messy pancake is traditionally a dessert.
Originating in Austria, the dish can be found in many Alpine locations, in small huts or mountainside restaurants, to enjoy after a day of skiing the slopes or playing in the snow.
