Kaiserschmarrn is an Austrian sweet specialty and probably best described as scrambled fluffy pancake. But anybody who’s tried it knows it’s more than that.
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Whether or not the origin of Kaiserschmarrn has got anything to do with the monarch of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, it is safe to say that the 'Kaiser' in its name stands for the excellence of its exquisite yet indulgent nature. The fluffy texture and the caramelised sugar coating is how the Kaiserschmarrn earns its crown.
Typically for an Austrian sweet dish, Kaiserschmarrn is traditionally made with eggs and butter. While it relies on whipped egg white folded into the batter to make it light and fluffy, it is then baked and caramelised in lots and lots of melted butter.
We've made our Vegan Kaiserschmarrn just as fluffy and rich – in other words, not losing its crown. We think the Kaiser would be proud of what we have achieved!
At the beginning, we successfully experimented with aqua faba, the magical bean or chickpea water. With some added cream of tartar (German: Weinsteinpulver) it whips up just as stiff as egg meringue! However, not having an electrical whisk on our trips in Ronnie the campervan, we had to come up with a different solution to make Kaiserschmarrn on the road.
We ended up using some ground flax seed as binder and a combination of baking powder and lemon juice to make the Vegan Kaiserschmarrn fluffy and light. It also works with cider or white wine vinegar, but we found the lemon also adds nicely to the flavour, and is convenient if you are also using zest.
For extra richness in flavour, you can add some vanilla extract or even some rum. (We don’t. But most Austrians would probably agree that adding alcohol is always, always a good idea.) You will often find raisins in Kaiserschmarrn. As opinions on them vary, just leave them out if you are not a fan.
A classic Kaiserschmarrn is most often served with a plum compote called Zwetschgenröster.
The two go so well together, they can usually be seen together on the menu of traditional Austrian restaurants. If we, as usually, don’t have any Zwetschgenröster at hand, we like to resort to our staple apricot jam, which is a more than acceptable second choice. In any way, Kaiserschmarrn works best with the added moisture of some kind of fruit preserve.
Also typical for an Austrian sweet dish, Kaiserschmarrn can be eaten both as a main course or as a desert. For the full Austrian experience, don’t forget to sprinkle loads and loads of icing sugar on top. The snow on the mountain tops. 🙂
📖 Recipe
Vegan Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian Sweet Speciality)
Ingredients
For the batter
- 1 cup (125 g) plain flour
- 1 heaped tsp baking powder
- 1 heaped tsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 heaped tsp ground flaxseed
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 cup (240 ml) soy milk
- 1 ½ tsp (tsp) lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
To add during cooking
- ¼ cup (40 g) raisins
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp oil
Instructions
- Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together
- Make a well in the flour mix, then add the flaxseed and water and let it sit for a minute.
- In the meantime mix the soy milk with the lemon juice, zest and oil.
- Add the soy milk mix to the flour mix and whisk thoroughly to combine into a thick batter.
- Heat up ½ tbsp oil in a frying pan
- When hot, pour in the batter.
- Cook on medium high until bubbles start to appear on top and the batter is cooked halfway through, around 2-3 minutes
- Sprinkle the raisins evenly all over the batter.
- To turn over, you can cut into quarters and turn each one over individually or you can just go for it with the whole thing if you are feeling particularly daring.
- Don’t worry about it being perfect, it’s all going to be cut up anyway!
- Cook for another couple of minutes until fully cooked.
- Then use your spatula to cut the pancake into bitesize chunks.
- Add the brown sugar and remaining 1 ½ tbsp oil to the pan, stir it all up to caramelise and crisp up for another 2 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
We hope you enjoyed our Vegan Kaiserschmarrn recipe! We just gobbled up that whole pan sitting under this beautiful almond tree in North Portugal.
With love!
Sophie, Paul and Ronnie
joey says
Delish! And super easy. Thanks so much!
Sophie and Paul says
Glad you enjoyed it Joey! It's one of my favourite Austrian dishes.
Nina says
ps I forgot to say in my earlier comment re the metric button. I can see that you kindly put metric measurements in brackets in the recipe (thank you) But when you click to print the recipe it defers to cup measurements and the metric measurements are not there. Hope that makes sense....
Nina says
Christmas Greetings from the UK. This looks fabulous... I have only just found your blog. Do you have a metric conversion button on your website, I don’t know if I’m just missing it... I would love to watch a video of this to give me more idea on how to finish the dish... keep well and stay safe wherever you are right now...
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Nina! So happy you found our blog. It's awesome to have you on board and we hope to share lots of tasty vegan recipes with you! You should now see both metric and cup measurements on the print card, so thanks so much for pointing that out! A video and better step by step pictures for this recipe is on our list for January, so we hope to update the recipe soon. Sending you Christmas greetings back! Sophie