Captain Create has gone to the mountains this week, as well as visiting a pretty city along the Danube river; She is in Austria, and getting a very famous lunch in Vienna! Austria has lots of mountains, and the Alps make up almost 3/4 of the country in the western portion. The Alps are steep and have great snow, so skiing is a fun way to get outside and see them! You could also snowboard, sled, or even learn to ski jump! Vienna is in the flat part of Austria, along the Danube river. You can’t ski in Vienna, but there is art, music, and Kaiserschmarrn (fluffy torn up pancakes!)
You’ve seen Austria in the movies, especially the city of Salzburg if you ever watched a movie about a family singing about hills being alive. They filmed in Austria and the Alps! Austria was also the birthplace of many famous composers such as Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. More modern Austrian celebrities like Hedy Lamarr (actress & inventor of some incredible tech: look her up!) and Arnold Schwarzenegger both became international movie stars because of their time working in Hollywood. Arnold’s famous accent is because he grew up speaking German, which is the official language in Austria, though many folks also use Hungarian, Slovene, or Croatian.
Food in Austria has been influenced by its neighboring countries, as well as travelers, soldiers, and the rich history of the locals. One dish you’ll find on the mountainside lodges in ski resorts, or in the city for lunch or dessert is Kaiserschmarrn, or Emperor’s Mess. Its a tasty plate of torn apart, and extra fluffy, pancakes served with applesauce or jam and a dusting of powdered sugar. Stories about how it came to be aren’t all in agreement, but it was the favorite meal of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1848-1916. It takes a couple steps to make this shredded pancake dish, but its well worth it because the end result is still a delicious mess!
Separate your eggs; be sure to not get any yolk in the whites or they won’t whip into fluffy soft peaks as easily and you’ll have a flat pancake. Once you mix the yolks, milk, flour, and vanilla with the fluffy whites you can cook it! This is probably the part you’ll need a big kid or adult to help with the cooking and flipping. You cook the pancake on medium low heat until the bottom starts to set. The trick to flipping a Kaiserschmarrn is to stick it in a hot oven (375 F) for a few minutes to set the batter. Once its baked 6-8 minutes you can take it out and flip it in one big piece, or break it up into quarters and flip the smaller pieces to brown the other side.
We broke ours up with a spatula and served it with our Crockpot Applesauce and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. It was a tasty lunch after playing in the snow outside all morning!
If you spend the day playing soccer (Austrians say football), you could serve this for dessert too! Try it at home at any time of day and let Captain Create know if you liked it!
