I grew up with Kaiserschmarrn! It’s truly a comfort food and I made sure my children grew up with it too! As you can see it is enjoyed by adults and babies alike!
I can’t even believe that these were my kiddos almost to the day, 5 years ago!
What is it?
Kaiserschmarrn is a traditional Austrian dessert and literally translated it means “Emperor’s mishmash”, after Emperor Franz Joseph who supposedly invented the dish.
It is an airy pancake made with eggs, flour, sugar, and butter (and optionally rum-soaked raisins.) The pancake is split into pieces while frying, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served hot with plum or apple sauce on the side.
Here’s the pretty passable low-carb version!
Kaiserschmarrn - or the Austrian Torn Pancake
Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated and at room temperature
1/4 cup low-carb bake mix of choice
1/4 cup of oat flour
1/4 cup of granular sugar substitute
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
1/4 cup of low-carb milk
1/4 cup of butter, divided
powdered sweetener for dusting
Preparation:
Melt 2 tbsps. of butter in the microwave.
Whip the room-temperature egg whites to soft peaks. Add the granular sugar substitute of choice and whip to stiff peaks. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the bake mix, oat flour, baking powder and vanilla.
Take a little of the batter and fold it into the stiff egg whites. Keep folding until all the batter is incorporated.
In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Pour the batter into the skillet and cook 5 to 6 minutes, or until the pancake has set and the bottom is golden brown.
Turn over the pancake and cook 3 minutes, or until this side is also golden brown.
If you’d rather not turn the large puffy pancake, place the pancake in a preheated oven (400 F) once you see the edges sizzle a little and cook until the top is golden brown. See the movie for that. Baking in the oven does produce a lighter product as the pancake isn’t deflated by turning it!
Using a spatula or two forks (go with the spatula if you have a non-stick coated pan,) tear the pancake into bite-size pieces. Drizzle with the melted butter.
Cook the pieces a little longer until golden brown.
To serve, sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar substitute and serve with sugar-free preserves or low-carb “apple” sauce.
For a visual aid in preparing Kaiserschmarrn, please view this short video! If you don’t understand Austrian, you don’t need to. Just watch the method and use the ingredients in the recipe on my blog and you’re good to go! Oh and ignore the multiple applications of sugar - that’s a little excessive even for the original high carb version, even though the resulting caramelized side of the pancake is rather nice. At our house we never did that however when I grew up and we would be hard pressed to do it successfully with sugar substitutes anyway, so just omit it!
The carb count of this very much depends on what bake mix you use!
The above recipe serves 2 for a meal or 3 for dessert.
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Do you have any suggestions on flour mix if I were to try to make gluten-free Kaiserschmarrn? I make it all the time with normal flour but I see here you do some gluten free recipes as well--I just don't know which type of blend might work best.
ReplyDeleteI haven't made it gluten-free yet, but it seems to lend itself to flour substitutions, so chances are it would work. Personally, I would choose a lighter, more rice and starch based gluten-free flour blend (and omit the oat flour from the recipe above,) so it doesn't get too heavy. Like, for example, the King Arthur GF Bake mix.
ReplyDeleteAs to the quantity you will probably have to experiment. In gluten-free baking, the dough always seems to have to be a little wetter than with regular flour, so I would just add a little at the time, until you get something that is just about as runny as a crepe batter. Then add the beaten egg whites etc and proceed as usual.
I hope it works out! Have a wonderful day!