Danish Pancake Balls “Aebleskiver”

Danish Aebleskiver, also known as Danish pancake balls, is a traditional Danish food served during Christmas. The center of these Danish pastries is soft and fluffy, almost creamy. The crust is crisp and slightly browned and the apple filling is sweet and tangy. In Danish “Aebleskiver” simply means apple slices which are the most traditional fillings for this well-known Nordic specialty. Popular during the Christmas holiday season, Aebleskiver is commonly found in almost every Danish supermarket from November until well after Christmas. I fell hard and fast for Aebleskiver when I traveled to Denmark a few years ago.

Unlike the American pancake, Aebleskiver (pronounced as “eb-el-ski-ver) is commonly served for afternoon coffee breaks or as a dessert on a cold Nordic winter night, alongside glögg, a popular drink that is similar to American mulled wine.

There are numerous recipes for making the Aebleskiver batter itself, but they generally fall into two categories: those made with baking powder/soda as a leavening agent (as is the case in my recipe), or those made with yeast. The batters vary in texture and flavor. Yeasted batters take patience to prepare and will expand more in the pan. But both versions are delicious, it’s just a matter of personal taste.

Traditional Aebleskivers were most often filled with small pieces of apples or sometimes applesauce (hence their name). In modern Danish kitchens, however, various fruit jam or chocolate fillings have become increasingly more common.

The Aebleskiver Frying Pan

The cooking of Aebleskiver is done in a special Aebleskiver frying pan with half-spherical molds. The earliest known Aebleskiver pans are more than 300 years old and were made from hammered copper. But copper proved less than ideal. Soon copper was replaced by cast iron, which distributes heat more evenly and forms a natural nonstick surface.

Today, pans are also made from aluminum with a nonstick coating. In Denmark, these pans can be found just about everywhere in the winter months. Here in the States, these pans can be easily purchased online or sometimes at a local kitchen store.

The Aebleskiver pan has a legend attached to it. It is believed that during the Viking age, one band of Vikings got hit very hard in battle. They returned to their ship with dented horn helmets and shields and they made pancakes to regain their strength. But because they didn’t have proper cookware, they greased their dented shields, poured the batter in them, and placed them over a fire. And thus the first Aebleskivers were born (or so they say…).

To me, Aebleskivers are a cross between a pancake and a donut, although they are slightly airier and lighter than either of those. And although the Danes consider them more of a Christmas dessert, I enjoy them year-round, for breakfast, lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar alongside a cup of of coffee.