Aebleskivers

When I was a kid, my mom taught us about our family history through food. At least, if I remember correctly, that is where this particular dish came into our lives. Danish Aebleskivers are a fun little round pancake type food with an applesauce center, or at least the ones that we had. I loved these growing up but had forgotten about them as an adult until one day while walking through a local store during the holidays, I found an aebleskiver pan! I was so excited to share this fun breakfast treat with my family!

For quite a number of years I made aebleskivers for Christmas breakfast. Over the years I started to change how I made them. I simplified to using a pancake or waffle batter. I started with applesauce like I had remembered, for the filling, but then I started to branch out and put jams and jellies from our summer harvest in the center. These turned out fantastic and is the way my kids prefer to eat them. I tried putting a whole chunk of fruit one year. That didn’t work very well as the fruit never even got warm in the middle because of how quickly they cook, and the batter never really cooked around the fruit. I think there was just too much liquid around the fruit. I switched back to the jams and jellies because they seem to work the best.

As the years past, and our kids got older and hungrier, I had to start making an increasing number of these little balls, and then we reached one Christmas where I couldn’t make them fast enough. The kids ate every batch as it came out of the pan, and I don’t believe I got more than one or two that year. I decided that was it. It took over an hour to make enough for the kids, and that wasn’t how I wanted to spend my Christmas morning. I told them I was done making aebleskivers for Christmas breakfast.

My kids, however, have never forgotten how much they loved them, and every year at least one, if not all of them, request aebleskivers to be put back on the Christmas morning menu. This year as I was pondering on how to make this more efficient, I decided that maybe I could make them earlier in the month and then freeze them. This is what I have settled on doing, assuming we don’t get super busy next week with other Christmas activities.

I don’t have a great recipe to share with you today. I will be scouring the internet looking for one that looks like I want to try. But I do have a few tips for you. First off, you can buy an aebleskiver pan online, and if you’re really lucky, you might be able to find one at a local shop or good kitchenware store. When you are ready with your batter and chosen center filling, make sure you grease the pan well. I use butter and make sure there is a puddle in the bottom of each cup. Then, fill about 1/2 full of batter, use a small dollop of filling in the center, and then fill the cup almost to the top with more batter, encapsulating the filling in dough. Usually by the time I get the batter in, filling in, and batter over the top, they’re ready to flip. Make sure you go in order with each item so that you can begin at the beginning flipping. My pan is cast iron, so I use a metal spoon to flip them over. The first couple are always messed up, but after that it’s a pretty quick process to get them all flipped. Timing is really a feel thing. I always have a few uncooked centers in the first batch, but after that they’re usually all cooked through.

This was such a fun Christmas breakfast tradition, and I think that if I cook ahead that it can be a fun Christmas breakfast item again. I enjoy Christmas traditions, and this year I remember that even the ones that are a bit harder or more time consuming are still great traditions. One day my kids may not be here for Christmas morning breakfast, until then I think these traditions need to be kept or renewed as the case may be. And just maybe, when they have their own families and Christmas morning breakfasts, they’ll have Danish Aebleskivers at their houses too!