Christoph's Kaiserschmarrn

Units

Temperature

Servings

Ingredients

240 g egg whites, about 8 large whites, at room temperature
20 ml lemon juice, acid stabilises the foam and keeps it from collapsing
80 g caster sugar, less than the Michelin version, because the fruit and the topping add their own
20 g cornflour, insurance; it holds the foam together through the folding

100 g egg yolks, about 5 large yolks
150 g cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, or half of each, whipped completely smooth first; see the notes
140 g plain flour
4 g fine salt
30 ml whole milk, less than a plain batter takes, because the cheese brings moisture
50 g butter, half for the pan and half for after the flip

400 g fresh fruit, berries, stone fruit or whatever is in season, cut just before serving
250 g Greek yogurt or double cream, whipped; the yogurt route is the one Christoph uses
to taste vanilla bean powder and sugar-free vanilla drops, for the whipped yogurt, to taste
to taste icing sugar, for dusting at the table

Whip the cottage cheese or yogurt completely smooth before anything else, in a blender or with a stick blender. Curds will tear the meringue apart later, so this is not a step to rush.
Whisk the whites with the lemon juice to soft peaks. Add the sugar in three goes and whisk to medium-firm peaks, then whisk in the cornflour.
Whisk in the yolks and the whipped cheese only until even. It will deflate a little, which is expected.
Fold in the flour and salt in two additions, then the milk. Gently but decisively, and stop the moment no dry flour remains.
Melt half the butter in a 30 cm skillet over low heat and wipe out the excess. Pour in all the batter and level it roughly.
Put the lid on and cook 12 to 15 minutes on low. Both parts matter. The lid traps steam so the top sets without browning, and the low heat gives a batter this thick time to cook through before the base darkens.
Add the rest of the butter around the edge, then flip the whole thing. Slide it onto a plate or board and invert it back into the pan, or use two wide spatulas if you are confident.
Cook 3 to 4 minutes uncovered on the second side.
Tear it into rough bite-sized pieces in the pan with two forks or a spatula, and give it another minute so the torn edges catch a little colour.
Serve straight from the pan, dusted with icing sugar, with fresh fruit and whipped yogurt or cream on top.

It borrows from both and copies neither.

	Kaiserschmarrn	Soufflé pancakes	This one
Lift	folded whites	meringue with cornflour	meringue with cornflour
Pan	one pan, oven finish	four 16 cm pans	one 30 cm skillet, lid on
Cooked	pan then oven	5 minutes, covered	12 to 15 minutes, covered
Torn	yes	no	yes
In the batter	nothing extra	nothing extra	whipped cottage cheese or yogurt
Served with	rum raisins, Zwetschgenröster	maple brown butter glaze	fresh fruit and whipped yogurt

The glaze belongs to the Michelin recipe and is deliberately not here. So are the rum raisins.

Whip the cheese first, always. Cottage cheese straight from the tub is full of curds, and folding curds into a meringue punctures it. Whipped smooth, it disappears and leaves behind body and protein.
Cottage cheese or yogurt is a real choice. Cottage cheese is milder and gives a slightly firmer, more custardy result. Greek yogurt is sharper and lighter. Half and half is the middle, and is what this was written for.
The lid is not optional. Without it the top stays raw while the base burns, because the batter is roughly three times as deep as an ordinary Kaiserschmarrn.
Two smaller pans beat one overloaded one. If your largest skillet is under about 28 cm, split the batter across two 24 cm pans rather than making one very deep pancake that will not cook through.
Tear it late. Tearing before the second side is cooked gives you scrambled batter. The pieces should already be set when you pull them apart.
If you want it more traditional, scatter a tablespoon of sugar over the torn pieces with the last of the butter and let it caramelise for a minute. Christoph leaves it out, because the fruit and the topping are doing that job.

Cottage cheese is Hüttenkäse or körniger Frischkäse in Germany. Quark works and is sharper and denser; use 120 g rather than 150 g and add a splash more milk.
Sugar-free vanilla drops are a liquid sweetener flavouring, easy to find online and in drugstores. Plain vanilla extract with a little sugar does the same job if you are not avoiding sugar.
Vanilla bean powder is worth having and is not the same as vanilla sugar, which is mostly sugar. Scraped vanilla seeds are the direct substitute.