The Country Mice

That’s the meaning of kaiserschmarm, a delicious buttery pancake we ate this morning.

Kaiserschmarm is popular in Germany — a quasi-instant version shows up in the supermarket aisles — round about where we’d locate Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.

In Germany they have Dr. Oetker. Germans are known for their higher educational standards.

So if you’re up for a tasty experiment please try this recipe, given to me more than — I don’t really want to say, now that I think of it — given to me in my university days by my dear friend Sigi.

You start with a veritable sea of white — flour, sugar, eggs, salt, icing sugar.

Mix 1 c flour,  1c milk, 2 egg yolks, pinch of salt and 2 T sugar.

Beat the egg whites till pretty stiff and fold in to the batter.

The egg whites will bump up the volume quite a bit.

Melt a generous amount of butter, medium heat, in a non-stick pan. You have to be generous. I’ve tried to be lean on the butter — it won’t work.

Pour in the batter.

Let it cook a bit and get ready a stiff-ish spatula or pancake flipper.

While it’s still ooey and gooey on the bottom cut it into quarters with the edge of that stiff spatula.

The pancake will ooze out and you’ll feel This Can’t Be Right as cutting an uncooked pancake seems contrary to anything you’ve ever done.

Flip said quarters.

The pancakes will be only lightly cooked on the bottom, not usually the way we fry up flapjacks.

Cut the quarters into eighths, the eighths into sixteenths, the sixteenths into thirtyseconds and carry on in multiples until you have a series of bite-size bits.

If you were not generous with the butter at the start you may be called upon to add more. Grilled charcoal’y chunks are not part of the Kaiserschmarm experience.

When you have enough wee bits remove from the heat and prepare to serve, dusted with icing sugar.

A King’s Feast indeed!

Kaiserschmarm Recipe

1 c milk

1 c flour

2 eggs, separated

2 T sugar

pinch of salt

butter

icing sugar

Mix flour with milk, add sugar, egg yolks and salt.

Beat egg whites until firm, fold into batter.

Melt 1/4 c butter in non-stick frying pan, medium heat.

Pour in batter, cook briefly (1-2 mins), then cut into quarters and flip.

Continue to cut into smaller pieces while frying, adding butter if cubes begin to stick.

Dust with icing sugar.

Serves 4.