Austrian Kaiserschmarrn

Every winter growing up, my parents and I would make the 9hr drive from our home town in Holland to our second home town in Austria; Hopfgarten. That sounds like a long drive, but to us it was so worth it. Nine hours in the car for ten straight days in the snow. 

These weeks were by far my favorite time of the year. No school, no work, just me and my parents in the snow. Skiing to our hearts content. And eating to our hearts content, because man was the food amazing. Wiener schnitzels, germ knödel, pom frites, Tiroler Gröstl, Brixentaler knoblauch suppe. And my all time favorite Austrian dish, Kaiserschmarrn. I would eat this every single day. Although technically a sweet dessert, I would have this for lunch, breakfast, dinner or desert. It didn't matter as long as I had it at least once a day. 

This week while we started talking about a weekend getaway to Lake Tahoe to go skiing with this seasons incredible snowfall, I decided it was time to try my hand at a recipe that had brought so much joy to my youth. 

Here are the ingredients: 

• 1 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup raisins 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• Confectioners sugar

To prepare the Kaiserschmarrn:

While preparing the batter, soak the raisins in some (pre-boiled) hot water. Beat milk and eggs together until well combined. Add in the vanilla essence. In a separate bowl combine flour and sugar. 

Pour milk and eggs over dry ingredients and mix until combined. Lastly dry the raisins in a kitchen towel and fold them into the batter. 

Heat a big skillet over medium-high heat, add butter. When all the butter has melted, turn the heat down to low. Add batter and cook undisturbed until bottom has begun to brown, about 4 minutes. With a spatula, divide the batter in four quarters and flip each segment carefully over. Now you can scramble the pancake batter, then allow to settle and brown on the bottom again. Repeat until batter is cooked into many golden browned pieces. 

I like to serve the Kaiserschmarrn with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and just a little blob of raspberry preserves. However I have also had this dish in Austria serve with a heaping hot scoop of vanilla sauce and it was no less delicious. 

As I mentioned before, this recipe is one of my all time favorite winter recipes. Smelling this will instantly take me back to many many wonderful memories in my childhood. I hope it can bring the same to you. Who knows, maybe next time I'll try and make Brixentaler knoblauch suppe, my other favorite Austrian dish. My dad sure tried many times to make it. Maybe I'll finally figure out how it's done. 

I also figured I'd enclose some classic captures of some of the many trips to Austria. Some old, others not quite as dated. Enjoy.