Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (2024)

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We Love Kaiserschmarrn And This Pancake “Mess” Is Very Easy To Make!

Looking for a dessert that is easy to make and where it definitely doesn’t matter if you mess it up? Try Kaiserschmarrn (sometimes also written as Kaiserschmarren)!

This “messy pancake” is a delicious dessert – made from a sweet batter – that has been popular for almost two centuries!

Served with powdered sugar and various fruit jams (compotes), it’s a classic Austrian dish you can find if you travel around Europe near the Alps. Given that it’s such a regional dish, it can be hard to find a Kaiserschmarrn recipe in English. Well, that’s where we come in!

Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (1)

That said, Kaiserschmarrn has a great back story – in fact, it has many versions. What is agreed upon is the fact that it got its name from being a favorite dish of AustrianEmperor Francis JosephI.

The name Kaiserschmarrn is made up of two words. “Kaiser” means Emperor and “Schmarren” is a loose, colloquial term to mean “mess” in the south of Germany and Austria.

How the Emperor got to tasting Kaiserschmarrn for the first time is up for debate: from having a wife looking to lose weight to having a nervous farmer cook it up for lunch when the Emperor stopped by. Whatever the story, the broken apart pancake is delicious!

Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (2)

Kaiserschmarrn is a dessert that is close to our hearts, too. Lisa grew up eating Kaiserschmarrn because even though it is Austrian, it is also popular in Bavaria in the south of Germany (where she grew up).

She often made it when she was a kid old enough to use a stove – but she left out the rum raisins!

Eric’s first interaction with Kaiserschmarrn was in Vienna at an authentic Viennese restaurant a few years back. Let’s just say that eating Kaiserschmarrn in the Austrian capital (complete with plum compote) was an unforgettable experience.

Honestly, Eric still raves about how that dessert was one of the best he has ever tasted. Yeah, it was that good.

Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (3)

To whip together your own broken pancake, just follow the recipe below. It is very easy to do and is perfect for those cooks just starting out who maybe haven’t honed their skills yet!

The original recipe includes rum-soaked raisins but they can be left out or substituted for other kinds of dried fruit.

As for the toppings, a hearty dusting of powdered sugar is a must when it comes to Kaiserschmarrn. It is also often served with a fruit compote (which is slightly different from jam – but jam also tastes great if you don’t have any compote).

It was originally done with plum compote but apple sauce also works very well with the eggy, doughy, sweet pancake! We hope you enjoy this recipe – have fun making a mess of things!

Related Recipes

If you liked Kaiserschmarrn, there are other great Austrian desserts or (or just desserts that are pancakes) that you may like!

  • Apple Pancakes – These German pancakes are sweet, thick, and fluffy!
  • Mohnnudeln – Austrian potato noodles covered in poppy seeds and sugar
  • Apple Strudel – A classic Viennese dessert that goes great with vanilla sauce

Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (4)

Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian Pancakes)

Sweet and doughy, Kaiserschmarrn (literally "Emperor's Mess") is a delicious Austrian dessert that is so easy to prepare. Made from eggs, flour, milk, and sugar, this messy looking pancake is best served with a sweet plum jam, apple sauce, or just powdered sugar!

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup raisins, optional
  • 2 tablespoons rum or water, if using raisins
  • 4 medium-sized eggs
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
  • powdered sugar and/or plum jam, to garnish

Instructions

  • If you want to include raisins into your recipe, soak them for around 15-30 minutes in 2 tablespoons of rum. If you don’t like rum and/or are sharing this meal with kids, just use water instead.

  • Separate the eggs – egg yolks into a large mixing bowl and egg whites into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Make sure that no egg yolk gets into the egg whites as this would make it harder to beat the egg whites in the next step.

  • Beat the egg whites in their bowl for a few minutes until stiff. When tilting the bowl, the egg whites should barely move/slide. Another way to test that the egg whites are stiff enough is to raise your beaters. If the egg whites create a little "mountain" in the bowl, your egg whites are stiff enough.

  • In the bowl with the egg yolks, add sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat with your electric mixer until the batter is smooth.

  • Add in the milk and the flour interchangeably into the egg yolk mixture in small increments while beating the batter on the lowest setting.

  • Set your electric mixer aside and carefully fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture with a spatula. Also add the raisins (optional).

  • Heat butter in a large frying pan and pour the batter in. If you have a smaller pan, you might want to fry the batter in two batches. We usually use a pan with a 10-inch diameter and prefer to fry it in two intervals as it makes it easier to flip and rip. Fry the pancake on low-medium heat for around 5 minutes until the bottom is slightly golden brown.

  • Break/rip your pancake into a couple of big pieces with a spatula and flip. The top of the pancake might still be uncooked which is fine – it will cook quickly once flipped. After flipping the pancake wait for around 2 minutes for it to cook lightly, then start ripping the pancake into even smaller pieces. Keep moving the pieces until everything is golden brown and fully cooked through.

  • Plate your pieces and serve your pancake with powdered sugar, plum jam, or apple sauce.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 511kcal | Carbohydrates: 85g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 188mg | Sodium: 191mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 54g

This nutritional information has been estimated by an online nutrition calculator. It should only be seen as a rough calculation and not a replacement for professional dietary advice.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Austrian

Author Recipes From Europe

Authentic Kaiserschmarrn Recipe (Austrian Torn-Up Pancakes) (2024)

FAQs

What does Kaiserschmarrn mean in English? ›

masculine noun , Kaiserschmarrn masculine noun. (Aus) sugared, cut-up pancake with raisins.

What is the Franz Joseph dessert? ›

Kaiserschmarren is prepared from pancake dough and – besides the Sacher Cake – one of the most popular sweets of the Viennese cuisine. Enjoy this imperial Viennese delicacy! One of the many legends about the origin of Kaiserschmarren says that Emperor Franz Joseph I liked to have Palatschinken (pancakes) for dessert.

Where is Kaiserschmarrn from? ›

A common dish found in published cookbooks and manuscript recipes from Jewish Vienna is Kaiserschmarrn, a kind of scrambled pancake with raisins. This Viennese recipe spread throughout the German-speaking world, and eventually appeared in cookbooks across German-speaking Europe.

Why do you put cream of tartar in pancakes? ›

Without cream of tartar, the meringue wouldn't be as strong, which may result in pancakes that aren't as tall and fluffy as they could be,” she mentions. “Or you'd have a batter that weeps or begins to separate while it waits for its turn on the griddle.”

What is the Austrian word for pancake? ›

Palatschinken are the Austrian version of pancakes or what the French would refer to as crêpes. They can be enjoyed in a variety of ways, whether with butter and maple syrup, filled with your choice of sweet or savoury fillings, or chopped up and added to soup.

What is a Schmarrn slang? ›

While Kaiserschmarrn roughly translates to Emperor's Mess (with three different alleged backstories as to why the dish was named as such) Schmarrn alone refers either to the traditional dessert, as a metaphorical way to say nonsense, or as a descriptive term of tasteless or inferior goods.

What is the literal translation of Kaiserschmarrn? ›

The name means “imperial mess” in German.

Who is the inventor of Kaiserschmarrn? ›

History. It is generally agreed that the dish was first prepared for the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I (1830–1916). There are several stories. One apocryphal story involves the Emperor and his wife, Elisabeth of Bavaria, of the House of Wittelsbach.

What are pancakes of Eastern Europe called? ›

Blini (plural blinis or blini, rarely bliny; Russian: блины pl.), singular: blin, are an Eastern European pancake made from various kinds of flour of buckwheat, wheat, etc. They may be served with smetana, tvorog, caviar and other garnishes, or simply smeared with butter.

Is baking soda or powder better for fluffy pancakes? ›

Adding baking powder is the easiest way to make fluffy pancakes. There's more than one way to make the bubbles that make a pancake fluffy, but the easiest way is by adding a raising agent such as baking powder.

Do pancakes taste better with water or milk? ›

Pancake lovers' biggest complaint when adding water instead of milk is that the flavor seems to change. Pancakes aren't as richly flavored with water. There are a few ways to improve your batter when you've used water, including: Add extra butter.

Why put eggs in pancakes? ›

Eggs are a crucial ingredient. They provide the cakes with the structure to hold light bubbles. Eggs also give the batter additional, richer flavor from the yolk fat. If you add too many eggs, you'll have “pancakes” that look more like custard or crepes.

What is the Irish word for pancake? ›

pancake1, s. 1 Cu: Pancóg f.

What is the Dutch word pancake? ›

Literally translated “pannenkoek” is the Dutch word for pancake.

What do Spanish people call pancakes? ›

''Pancake'' can be said in Spanish in various ways. The easiest to remember is panqueque (pronounced pahn-KAY-kay). It is a masculine noun. This word is used fundamentally in the Spanish-speaking countries of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) as well as in Peru, Honduras, and Guatemala.

What is the meaning of French pancake? ›

For starters, some of you may say that a French pancake is a crêpe but not at all. In the great tales of Captain Baker, it is said that the French pancake is actually a mix from the sweetness of crêpes and the cakey texture of pancakes (a wise man would say it's the best of both worlds).

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