The Foodie-file: Aebleskiver (Danish Pancake Balls)
The test kitchen was clearing out their cupboards right before the holidays and I picked up this Aebleskiver pan, also known as a munks pan. Aebleskiver’s are Danish pancakes cooked in this pan to make round balls of dough. They are traditionally flavoured with cardamom, dusted with icing sugar and served with fruit preserves or filled with apples. I have my nephew spending a few days with me so I thought we should try out the pan. We flavoured our batter with vanilla and a bit of cinnamon. I had some Crofters organic jams on my shelf so we filled them with blueberry and sour cherry preserves. They were really fun to make and eat; my nephew had them again this morning for breakfast doused in maple syrup.
This is the recipe I used, I made sure to season my pan before I used it which paid off – not one of them stuck.
4 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
2 cups all purpose flour
additional melted butter to brush the pan
Sift the dry ingredients together in to a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, egg yolks, vanilla and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Mix the wet ingredient into the dry until just incorporated, do not over mix. Fold in egg whites. Heat pan; brush each hole with melted butter. Drop about a tablespoon of batter in each hole. (Fill with fruit preserves if desired and top with a little more batter) When browned on one side, turn pancake over (I found a pointy chopstick worked well for this, a fork with long tines was OK too). If you turn them over a quarter at a time they will get a rounder look. this as harder to do when they were filled. They will take one or two minutes to cook through depending on how hot your pan is. Serve with syrup, jam, or sprinkled with icing sugar.
This made a lot – I didn’t count but at least 4 dozen.
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If you really like to learn more about these delicious aebleskiver or “pancake balls†as many are calling them, the best place to go to is: http://www.aebleskiver.com where they will teach you how to make them. In fact there even is a video to show you how it should be done. They also have the largest selection on the internet of pans for all kind of stoves and desires. You can also get the ready made mix and the jam to top them with.