Æbleskiver
Traditional Danish dessert — feather-light pancake batter balls, lightly crisp on the outside
Equipment
- 1 æbleskiver pan
- 1 squeeze bottle
- 1 wooden skewer or chopstick
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour 250 g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ tsp ground cardamom optional
- 1⅔ cups buttermilk 400 ml. If you don’t have it, use the same amount of milk plus 1 tbsp lemon juice and let it stand for 10 minutes.
- 3 eggs
- 3½ tbsp butter 50 g, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 packet vanilla sugar
For cooking
- fat oil, butter, or even lard
For serving
- powdered sugar generously
- jam strawberry or raspberry
Instructions
Making the Æbleskiver batter
- First, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, and cardamom.
- Separate the eggs. Mix the egg yolks with the buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract — or vanilla sugar.
- Add the egg yolk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth and lump-free.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Mix the beaten egg whites into the batter in a few additions. The first time, you can still mix vigorously, but after that, fold them in gently with a spatula so the foam does not collapse.
- For easier cooking, pour the batter into a squeeze bottle.
Cooking
- Heat the æbleskiver pan until hot, then turn the flame down to medium and let the pan cool off the heat for 1–2 minutes.
- Place the pan back over medium heat and put a little fat into each well.
- Fill the pan wells about ¾ full with Æbleskiver batter. Let cook for 1–2 minutes, until you can easily turn each one with a wooden skewer or chopstick.At this point, the bottom of the batter is cooked enough that you can move the half-sphere. Don’t worry if the uncooked part flows out — that can even be a good thing.Note: in the picture here, I overfilled the pan a little; you don’t need this much batter in it!
- Turn the balls 90 degrees so that half of each well remains empty. Fill that empty part again with raw batter, about ¾ full.
- Continue this process another 2–3 times, until you get completely round balls.With the later turns, the balls cook more quickly. Depending on the heat and your practice, making one ball takes 6–8 minutes.
Serving
- Serve the finished Æbleskiver balls fresh, generously dusted with powdered sugar, with red jam on the side — strawberry is best, but if you don’t have that, raspberry is fine too.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!