Kaiserschmarrn

Ok, today I'm going to tell you about the world's greatest food. You're welcome in advance. Before I share more, we need to start with a little background info. Yeah, this food is so good it needs an intro. 

Brunnenburg, Italy
source

Once upon a time I lived in a castle in northern Italy for 3 months. That might be a slight exaggeration. But I promise, it's really only slight. See that little white building with the brown roof? I did a study abroad program in college where a group of us lived there & worked on a vineyard for 3 months. Rough life, I tell ya. So more accurately, we lived in a farmhouse of a castle for 3 months. Basically the same thing. Anyway, that's not the point of the story... but obviously I just had to brag about the castle. I mean, who wouldn't?

Source

See the small castle on the bottom? That's where we were. It doesn't look like much, but the walk up to down was up through those vineyards and it wasn't the easiest, especially if you're lazy like me. Up the hill from the castle was Dorf Tirol. Quite possibly the cutest town ever.

Dorf Tirol, Italy
source

See? I wasn't lying. My roommate and I would walk up to the Dorf far too often and go to this little restaurant where our Hungish friend would bring us Kaiserschmarrn. Mine with 'no fruit' and a glass of juice. Her's was normal with a glass of wine. To clarify, our 'Hungish' friend was the waiter & he was from Hungary. Somehow he became known as our hungish friend. We're pretty good at making up sophisticated sounding words, obviously. Not many things can get me to walk up a hill. Kaiserschmarrn can. I mean, it's so good there are even postcards about it. 

Kaiserschmarrn. World's greatest food.
Source

I don't quite know how to describe it. It's like a super eggy pancake or some sort of sweet omelette. It's traditionally served with rum soaked raisins, some sort of jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. I'm also not sure what meal it's actually meant for, but I think it's totally appropriate to eat at any time of the day. According to the interwebs it can be described as an Austrian dessert pancake. So it's breakfast AND dessert - my two favorite meals. Both of which can totally be eaten whenever as I personally believe both those meals (yes, dessert is a meal) are enjoyable at any time of day.

Fast forward to a bajillion years later and a friend tagged me in a link to the recipe. That's how addicted to this I was - 5 years later and someone who wasn't even on the trip with me tagged me in a link to the recipe. That's serious, folks. I don't know what took me so long to make this, or why I didn't look up a recipe myself (there's that whole laziness issue again) but I finally did it. And holy cow it was amazing and tasted virtually the same. It brought back a huuuuge rush of nostalgia and a longing for a trip to the Dorf with my roommate to visit our Hungish friend. That trip will have to wait, but for now at least I get to enjoy my beloved kaisherschmarrn again.

Ingredients:

-1/4 C raisins & 1/4 C rum - optional. I hate raisins so didn't include.

-1 C whole milk

-5 eggs

-1/4 C white sugar

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-pinch of salt

-1 C flour

-2 tablespoons butter

-1 tablespoon melted butter

-1/4 C+ powdered sugar

-applesauce, jam, whatever you want to serve it with. This is also optional - I just eat it plain!

If including raisins, let them soak in rum for 20-30 minutes & set aside.

In medium bowl, beat together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk in flour. Add raisins if including (drain them first!)

In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter on medium heat. Pour batter into skillet making one giant pancake. Cook 5-6 minutes or until batter has set and starts to turn golden brown on the bottom. Using spatulas or forks tear batter into small pieces. Drizzle with melted butter and dust with powdered sugar. Turn heat up to med-high and toss pieces for another ~5 minutes or until golden brown & cooked through. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and serve with whatever you'd like. Or be like me and just grab a fork and eat it plain. 

This makes a lot of food. I made it for dinner one night and we were unable to finish it. I think James finally managed to finish it off, but I'm sure it would probably reheat just fine if you tossed it back in a pan the next day.

Picture yourself in the cutest town in northern Italy and enjoy!! Maybe finish it off with some gelato just to be super authentic ;)