Wintery Kaiserschmarren with Cherry Compote

Today I brought along broken-up pancakes, which are called Kaiserschmarren with a nice cherry compote with spices and mulled wine. I would like to take a bite right away. When I moved from the north of Germany to the south, I realized that it was a lot of fun making some of the more southern recipes, you can definitely feel the influence of Austria, which is about one hour away. The Austrian cuisine offers a lot of pastry dishes prepared with flour, eggs, and milk. Once you go hiking in the Alps and are offered Kaiserschmarren at one of the cabins, you will know what I am talking about, it is so amazing. I like this dish also for breakfast or brunch, it is perfect for a cold winter day. I already introduced a Kaiserschmarren recipe on the blog in spring, that one was prepared with rhubarb, but today we are going for the winter edition with warming and spiced cherries.

I do love making breakfast even during the week. I have been making breakfast for my husband and me for several years now. I also prepare breakfast on weekends. If it were for me, I would eat Kaiserschmarren every single Saturday. I just love the flavor of it. The crunchy and caramelized outside and the fluffy inside, so good! I love that you can make so many variants of Kaiserschmarren. The below amount is rather on the smaller side for two people, if you are really hungry, it probably serves as one big portion for one person.

I don’t know if you can get cherries in winter, if you find frozen ones, use those. Here in Germany you find canned cherries and I love to use those for this recipe. Actually, they are even better than fresh ones, because, you know, I hate to admit this, but I made this recipe even in summer, that’s how much I love it. I know, broken-up pancakes may sound awkward to you, but you need to give this dish a chance, it has so much to offer compared to regular pancakes!

Print Recipe

Serves: For about one to two people

Prep Time: 15min – Cooking Time: Ca. 10min – Total Time: 25-30min

This is the Austrian version of a pancake that's broken into smaller pieces. The pieces are then caramelized with extra sugar and served with delicious cherries that were infused with mulled wine.

Ingredients

• Wintery Cherry Compote
• About 300 grams of canned or frozen cherries
• 50 grams of regular sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 150 grams of mulled wine
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 
  
• Kaiserschmarrn
• 2 egg yolks
• 20 grams of regular sugar
• 1 teaspoons of vanilla extract, see here how to make your own
• 160 grams of milk
• 30 grams of water (preferably with gas)
• 70 grams of all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• Additional sugar for caramelizing
• Butter for frying
• Icing sugar

Instructions

1

For the cherry compote drain the cherries and keep the juice. Bring the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and mulled wine to a boil and the reduce heat to a simmer. Take a bit of the cherry juice and stir with cornstarch in a mug until you see no lumps. Add to the mixture and let thicken, then add the cherries. Keep warm until you prepare the rest.

2

For the Kaiserschmarrn mix the egg yolks with the sugar with a mixer for two minutes, it should become paler and thicker in consistency. Then add vanilla extract, milk, and flour and mix. Let sit for about 15min.

3

Meanwhile look for a heavy sauce pan and melt some butter in it on low.

4

Clean your mixer thoroughly and then beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in egg whites into the egg yolk mix and pour into the prepared frying pan. Yes, you will have one gigantic pancake. Keep the temperature at medium low. Cook until the back is golden, check in between by lifting an edge a little with a spatula. Once golden, cut the giant pancake into four parts. Turn each part so that the second side can also fry. Start cutting into bite-size pieces. Once everything is cooked through, sprinkle about one to two tablespoons of sugar on top and let the sugar caramelize.

5

Serve with warm cherry compote and dust with icing sugar.