Meals from around the world: featuring the Denmark Aebleskiver

Aebleskiver is a classic Danish dish that is usually eaten at home for afternoon coffee breaks. Ableskiver means apple slices even though modern recipes don’t always contain apples anymore. It is an old recipe, possibly going back to Viking times. According to Solvang Blog, it goes back so far that they didn’t have pans to make them. They would grease cook them on their shields over a fire.

Aebleskiver is a pretty simple dish that can change based on where it’s made. Everyone has their own favorite recipe and how to serve it.

They are really popular in Solvang, California. You can find all different variations of it, but the most common way is with powdered sugar and jam on top.

I made it with spiced apples in it like an apple pancake pie. Some people put fruit or chocolate chips in it, serve it plain with powdered sugar on top, or serve it with jam. My little sister, sixth grader Isabella Johnston, was my taste tester.

“It’s so good…but it’s hot!” said Johnston after eating it right after it came off the pan.

The one item you might not already have in your kitchen that you’ll need for this recipe is an Aebleskiver pan. This will allow you to form little balls.

To make the batter you will need: 

2 cups of flour 

1 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

3 eggs

2 cups of buttermilk.

To make the apple filling you will need:

2 large green apples

 ½ lemon

 ¼ tsp. of cinnamon

a small piece of ginger

5 Tbs. of brown sugar

1 Tbs. of unsalted butter.

You are going to want to start with the apples. Peel the skin off and slice the apples into thin pieces. On a pan over medium heat, cook all apple filling ingredients (see above) for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Once the juice is at the bottom of the pan and apples become flimsy, take out the ginger piece, then drain the juice and set aside.

For the batter, start with whisking the egg yolks and buttermilk in a large bowl, while making sure to save the egg whites for later. In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Combine this mixture into the eggs and buttermilk.

For this step, I would use an electric mixer. Take the three egg whites and whisk them on high speed until it looks like a meringue. Then, gently add that into the batter with a spatula. This will make the batter fluffy.

Now it’s cooking time! Take your Aebleskiver pan and put over medium heat. Grease just one pocket and start with that. Put one tablespoon of batter in the pocket then place the apples in the center. (You may need to fold them in half to make sure they fit.)

Then, put enough batter to where it covers the apples. Wait until there are little bubbles forming at the top and then flip so that the cooked side is facing you.

Flipping them is really hard at first. It took me four tries to get them turned over and cooked all the way through. I used chopsticks, but you can use a fork or whatever seems easiest to turn them. 

For the whipped cream, put some heavy cream into an electric mixer with a little bit of cinnamon and powdered sugar. The milk will become fluffy. Keep tasting and adding powdered sugar and cinnamon until it is sweet and yummy.

Since this is such an old recipe you can modify however you like. You can serve it with whip cream on top or on the side. I put it on the side and dipped it in the whip cream. 

Overall, this is a simple dish (with practice on flipping) and it tastes delicious!