Nope. Not apple. Aeble.

Aebleskiver actually means apple slices in Danish. Infact, some people speculate whether or not the first aebleskiver actually had little bits of apple in them. The traditional way of serving them doesnt require apple bits, but you certainly could add them, if you want.

Personally I enjoy mine the good old fashioned way.. with a little jam and powdered sugar.

They’re made in a special pan called a ‘monks pan’ that you can find online or in specialty cookware shops. It’s usually a round cast iron pan with seven little half sphere pockets in it.

I bought my pan from a thrift store when I was in my teens. It had been a while since I’d seen one, let alone eaten aebelskiver, so I dont know exactly what I was thinking buying it back then.

When I was younger, after we moved, I managed to make friends with one of theneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com girls that lived up the road from me. She was in the same grade as me, and since we lived so close to each other, it was easy staying friends with her. Her name was Kristen.

One of the things that was really cool about Kristen’s family was how family oriented they were. My family had started to spread out a little when my sister got into highschool, and we werent nearly as close knit as we had been previously. Her family would sit and have breakfast together every Saturday morning. I spent so much time over at her house that her mom started inviting me to come to it.

They were from Minnesota, and from what I understand, never having actually BEEN to Minnesota, the area they lived in had a very large population of Danish folk. Her family was actually of Danish lineage, but I never did ask much about that. I was too busy stuffing aebleskiver into my mouth.

I’d never heard of them before. I’d never seen them before. I was used to waffles and pancakes, and on occasion BELGIAN waffles, which was about as European as my family got when it came to different types of breakfast foods. Sure, we had canadian bacon (back bacon) but that was even less often then Belgian waffles.

It wasnt long until I became obsessed with them. I asked Kristens mom if she could show me how to make them, and I learned pretty quickly. It isnt nearly as hard as it sounds. You have to have pretty good timing and not mind hovering over a hot stove for a while, but once you start, it becomes like second nature.

There are many ways to enjoy aebleskiver. Like I said before, you could mix apples into the batter, you could serve them like you would traditional pancakes, with syrup and butter. You could cut them in half and make little breakfast sandwiches, You can save them for later and eat them cold or hot. They’re awesome.

Besides being delicious, they’re also a wicked cool way to impress your friends with pancakes that look like they came from outerspace. I mean, really.. who makes spherical pancakes?

Hehe.. I DO!

Here is the recipe that I have, even though there are tons of recipes out there for the same thing.

-Ingredients-
2 egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk

You will also need-
-Either liquid canola oil or an aerosol spray canola oil- like Pam
-A monks pan (a specialized aebleskiver pan) THIS IS REQUIRED.

Directions
Beat the egg whites stiff. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites last.

Spray the bottom of each æbleskiver pan cup with a small amount of oil and heat until it sizzles. Fill each of the pan cups about half full with the batter. As soon as they get bubbly around the edge, turn them quickly by poking the wooden skewer into the edge of the batter and turning it up, allowing the uncooked batter to flow down into the cup. Alternatively, you can turn them halfway first, so that the baked crusts protruding from the pan will look like the Sydney Opera House. And after a while you turn them the remaining 90 degrees. This will give them a perfect ball-shape (this is how I do it) Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning. Spray each pan cup with oil before refilling with the batter.

It sounds difficult. The first couple tries it WILL be difficult, but sooner than later you will be an aebleskiver pro. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, invite all your friends over, whip up a batch and watch the ooh’s and ahh’s come out as you present them with pancakes straight out of an episode of the Jetsons.

Traditionally, they’re served with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and some preserves-
But you can do just about anything with them that you’d do with normal pancakes. They’re just a little sweeter.
So go out, buy yourself a monks pan (its totally worth it) And wow your friends with spherical pancakes.
DO IT!

-A.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 1:55 pm and is filed under February 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.