Aebleskivers

My recent trip to Oregon featured a breakfast of the all-too-addictive aebleskivers. They're little sweet pancake-waffle balls that you break open and serve with jam, a legacy of Junction City's Scandahoovian heritage.

I asked my mother-in-law for the recipe, and she replied that a certain church cookbook she'd given me had the recipe. So I got home, had a look, and went to my husband to ask "which one?" After he'd stopped laughing (because how many places would have a single church cookbook featuring more than one version of an obscure recipe?) he told me his mother probably used neither of them, but her own arcane style. So here's a combined version of the recipe, with some notes along the way.

You will need:
An aebleskiver pan (which has seven semi-circular depressions in it.) This has to be a heavy-duty pan as a cheap pan will cook unevenly.

All recipe variants denoted by / ; use either the ingredients before the slash, or the ones after, not both.

2 cups flour
2 cups milk/2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp. baking powder/1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt/1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, separated/3 eggs, separated
1 tbsp. sugar/2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring/applesauce
Melted butter or shortening

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Beat the yolks, then add sugar, salt, and milk/buttermilk. Add the flour, almond flavoring, and baking powder/soda. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Heat the aebleskiver pan until hot. Drop some butter/shortening into each depression and fill 2/3 full with batter. The second recipe requires you to drop some applesauce onto the dough (carefully). As bubbles form in the balls (like with pancakes), turn with a knitting needle or fork. Keep turning until aebleskiver is spherical and brown on all sides; if you are using the knitting needle you can use it to test for doneness.

Serve hot, with maple syrup, powdered sugar, or by breaking it open and filling it with jam. Very addictive.

Rob notes that this is essentially a fancy soft waffle, so if you'd like to experiment, try a waffle mix and cut down the wet ingredients (water & oil) by a third, substitute some applesauce, or add some sugar.

Or just go to Junction City's Scandanavian Festival, held every August, and buy the danged things.

And because you're all dying to know, it's pronounced "Ay-ble-skee-ver."

[Comments copied from old blog]:
Alena made this comment,
I bought a pan that I have been told is an aebleskiver but it isn't round at the bottom, it is flat, but round edges. In other words, it would make more of a pancake shape than a donut hole shape. It is only (at most) 1/2 inch deep. Is it still an aebleskiver pan?

Bernadette made this comment,
Probably not, but you could make silver dollar pancakes in it with the aebleskiver recipe and I bet it would still taste good!

Stephanie made this comment,
hello, my family is from denmark and Aebleskivers have always been something that we've always eaten. the more traditional Aebleskiver is the first one that was post without buttermilk and instead of 2 eggs, use 3 eggs and we also use 1/4 tsp. almond flavouring and 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract, no imitation though! another thing i noticed is the recipe doesn't say to put melted butter in the recipe... i always put 4 tbsp. of melted butter in my batter, and i also put butter inside the Aebleskivers when they are done with either blackberry preserve or raspberry preserve. so, try it with the extra egg and the almond and vanilla and the 4 tbsp. of melted real butter, no margarine! one last thing, the recipe doesn't say to quarter turn the aebleskivers, when i was a kid my mother would let me turn and the first time i tried i had tried turning all the way over and not quarter turning and they didn't turn out right... so, now you quarter turn and make sure you do it about 20 seconds after they go into the hot pan, you don't want to wait too long or there won't be enough batter that is still wet to go all the way around in each quarter turn. :) if you want to let me know how they turned out, or if you have questions or anything, you can email me at stephie_pie@hellokitty.com