Okay, so, before stumbling across this recipe in Food & Wine, I had never in my life heard the word kaiserschmarrn. But it sounded pretty tasty, and stone fruit is very much in season, and I thought it'd go pretty well with the sweet corn ice cream I had planned, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
Of course the market dictated a few changes -- the apricots looked better than the peaches, and ditto the cherries over the blackberries -- and a lot of this had to be done at the last minute, making it not an ideal choice for dinner. Then again, it serves at least six people (we served it to eight) so it's a bit much if you don't have a big group over.
And how pretty are these little guys?
Cook the apricots in butter, sugar and lemon juice just until they soften:
Ditto with the cherries:
Though the cherries do get a bit messy:
That part you can do ahead. (Which leaves time for handwashing.)
Right before cooking the pancake up, you whip the egg whites separately:
Then fold them into the rest of the non-fruit wet ingredients. This gives the pancake a really nice lift.
Pour the batter into the pan:
Midway through cooking, in a rather odd turn of events, you actually cut the pancake up (with a spatula or something else non-sharp) while it's in the pan, pour more sugar on it, dump the fruit on top, and shove it around for a bit to finish cooking. Which looks just as pretty as you'd think:
Is it any wonder "schmarrn" translates as "mess"? A delicious mess, at least.
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