Do You Know What Aebleskivers Are?

 (Photo by Stana, Dreamstime.com)

So what are aebleskivers anyway?  (Pronounced "EE-bull-skiv-ers", even just saying the word is fun! )

A holiday in Denmark often begins with a breakfast of these little pastries. They are a pancake, but fluffier.  They are a cupcake, only lighter.  They can be the main course, the appetizer, a snack, or the dessert!  You can fill them with absolutely anything that makes your mouth water, whether sweet or savory.  I'm thinking fresh fruit, pie fillings, chocolate, applesauce, ham and cheese, bacon, sausage, pastry cream, raisins, coconut, peanut butter, honey, Nutella, or pudding.  Soft and fluffy in the center, but crisp and browned on the outside.  Are you drooling yet?

Want to have fun while experiencing fine Scandinavian cooking? Here's what you need.

First, you need a pan made with heavy cast iron or cast aluminum with half-round wells about 2-1/2 inches in diameter.   What you do is, fill each well with batter, about 2/3 full.  Spoon the filling on top and then add more batter.  Or, depending on what you have chosen to put inside the aebleskivers, you can cook them without the filling and inject pastry cream, etc, with a pastry bag or decorating set.  You can also cook them without any filling but dip them in sugar, honey, jam, or whatever you want.

You need a batter.  Either use a mix especially for aebleskivers, or find a recipe for them, or use a pancake batter.  If you choose to use pancake batter, you need to make it lighter. Omit the egg in the mix directions.  Instead, whip three egg whites and fold them into the batter.

The hardest part is probably deciding what to put inside the aebleskivers!  Something savory?  Something sweet?  For breakfast?  For dinner?  For snack?

But don't worry--you can try them all!  Have bacon aebleskivers for breakfast, ham and cheese ones for lunch, and chocolate aebleskivers for dinner's dessert.

The next day try fruit aebleskivers for breakfast and pudding ones for snack.  Your kids will watch for the aebleskiver pan on the counter.  You may even be able to bribe them to clean their rooms with the promise of  aebleskivers!