Last month, my friend Daniel Spann decided to do the ultimate American road trip. He and his girlfriend, Roswitha, flew from their home in Germany to America. They bought a car in San Francisco and started driving. His intention was to show Roswitha an “American experience” as she had never been to the States. Everything was going great until their car broke down in Gallup, New Mexico on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

Once rescued from Gallup, their misadventure turned out to be a great culinary adventure at my house. Roswitha is an amazing cook, and she graciously shared recipes with me as well as cooking some traditional Bavarian dishes. What follows is the recipe for the first dish she showed me: Kaiserschmarrn, a traditional Bavarian pancake dish that can be eaten as a dessert or a meal. She cooked. Daniel translated. I took photos and notes. Then we ate until we could eat no more.

Aine: Where does the name of this dish come from and what does it mean?

Roswitha & Daniel:  Kaiser is the word for the emperor. Schmarrn is a word that means a mess or sometimes it can be a swear word. But in this case it’s like a pile of mess or a mash-up.  There are lots of stories about how this dish got its name but here is the one I know. The Emperor woke up at night and was hungry, but because it was the middle of the night there were no servants. So he went to the kitchen to make up some food. Because he was the Emperor, he had no idea how to cook so he tried to make this dish. It was huge mess but it was good so basically it’s called the “Emperor’s mess” or Kaiserschmarrn.

Aine: How would you explain this dish?

Roswitha & Daniel: The dish is like a pancake, but after it cooks you cut it into lots of pieces. The best time to eat it is when it is hot. You put the pieces on a plate and sprinkle powdered sugar over it. We eat it with applesauce but you can eat it with any fruit. Sometimes people put raisins in it.

Aine:  How did you learn how to cook this and when do you make it at home?

Roswitha:  I was raised in Bavaria. When I was young we went to live with my grandparents, my father’s parents. I had a hard childhood. I never felt as if I belonged. My grandmother would make this. As I grew up doing most of the work and cooking on the farm, I learned how to make it.

With my son, I wanted his childhood to be different from mine and happy. So I make this dish quite often for him and his friends. They love it and eat it as soon as it is ready and off the stove hot. It is really filling and so easy to make. I make my own applesauce so I serve Kaiserschmarrn with that applesauce.

Roswitha’s Kaiserschmarrn

Ingredients:

– 2 cups milk

– 4 eggs

– pinch salt

– 1 to 1 1/2 cups flour

– pat of butter for skillet

Directions:

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Start with one cup flour. Add more if needed until you have a thick pancake like batter.

2. Heat skillet on medium. Add pat of butter.

3. Once butter is melted add scoop of batter to skillet. Let one side cook and then flip just as you would with a pancake.

4. Once done, move cooked pancake to plate and cut into many strips.

5. Sprinkle with powder sugar and add applesauce on the side to dip pancake strips in.

6. Cook remaining batter. Serve hot.