The Kaiserschmarren or “emperor’s sweet omelette” is a dessert of Austrian origin popular throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and the South Tyrolean area. There are some legends about the origin of this dessert, although the most probable places it in the peasant kitchens of the seventeenth century, its preparation was a way to create a very substantial and energetic meal using ingredients that everyone had in the pantry.

Many traditional desserts were born in peasant homes with simple yet nutritious ingredients; in our area, typical sweets like the pinza, the biscuit and coffee brick cake, and the zuccherini montanari were born in this way.

I had already tasted the kaiserschmarren and I liked it a lot, so today I thought of preparing it at home. There are various ways to prepare it; I preferred the traditional recipe, which certainly gives a lot of fluffiness to the mixture and a better result.

The recipe is really simple; you just need to be a little careful with the cooking, which should be done in a large pan over low heat. Common aromas include: vanilla bean or vanillin, rum, and in the traditional Austrian version, lemon zest, an ingredient essential to me, as it mellows the taste of the egg.

Why does this dessert have such a peculiar name? Legend has it that the emperor’s sweet omelette was invented by mistake by a busy Austrian chef preparing the dinner for the royals. Busy with his recipes, he received an urgent order; the emperor himself asked for a crepe for dessert. In a panic, he prepared the batter, poured it into the pan, and forgot about it, letting it overbrown. Not having time to redo it, he decided to tear it into pieces, add raisins and sugar in the pan, and sprinkle it with plenty of powdered sugar to hide the overbrowning, completing it with abundant jam. The emperor liked it so much that it became his favorite dessert, naming it Kaiserschmarren or emperor’s omelette.

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