Danish · Breakfast

Aebleskiver

Danish round pancake balls cooked in a special pan, turned with a skewer and served with jam and icing sugar.

40 min total Serves 4 servings Medium
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Aebleskiver

Photograph credit: Aebleskiver by JoachimK · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

How to Cook Aebleskiver

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  1. Mix the flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt. Whisk in the buttermilk, yolks, sugar and melted butter to a smooth batter.

  2. Whisk the whites to stiff peaks and fold in gently.

  3. Heat an æbleskiver pan over medium heat and butter each hollow. Fill to three quarters with batter.

  4. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn each ball a quarter turn with a skewer. Keep turning every minute for 6 minutes until round and gold.

  5. Dust with the icing sugar and serve hot with the jam.

Keep an Eye on These

  1. Fold in the whites gently.
  2. Turn each ball with a skewer.
  3. Serve at once.

Ingredient Swaps

  • Out of buttermilk? The usual stand-in is a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred into 250 ml of ordinary milk and left five minutes; it is thinner than cultured buttermilk, so a batter may need a little less of it.

About This Recipe

What is an æbleskive? It is a round, puffy pancake ball, crisp outside and almost hollow within, and the name means apple slices because, in the old days, slices of apple were put into the batter. Today the batter is plain, and the æbleskiver are eaten at Christmas in Denmark, dipped in jam and dusted with icing sugar.

A special pan with round hollows is needed, though a cast iron one is best. The batter is a thin, eggy mix of flour, buttermilk, eggs, baking powder and cardamom, with the egg whites whisked and folded in. Fold in the whites last and gently, because they make the balls light. Butter each hollow and fill to three quarters.

When the underside has set, after about 2 minutes, turn each ball a quarter turn with a knitting needle or a skewer, tilting the raw batter into the hollow to form a sphere. Keep turning every minute for about 6 minutes, until the ball is round and deep gold. Dust with icing sugar and serve hot with raspberry jam, and a cup of mulled wine.

To Go With It

Raspberry jam · Mulled wine · Coffee

Keeping Aebleskiver

Best fresh.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

575Calories
15gProtein
77gCarbs
23gFat
2gFibre
25gSugar
480mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.

First published ; last changed .