First off, so sorry to have been so out of the loop the past few months! Summer became incredibly busy, then I managed to break my leg playing soccer, which has kept me out of kitchen for the past few weeks. But… now I’m back and have some great ideas for future blog posts! This post has actually been long in the making. I hosted a test kitchen with my friends Kierstin and Jaime at the end of June and am just now getting to posting (sorry!), but it is even more relevant than ever because aebleskivers are PERFECT for fall!
Aebleskivers!
Ok, you may be asking yourself: what in the world is an aebleskiver… excellent question! An aebleskiver is a traditional Danish pancake that is shaped in a ball. It is often covered with powdered sugar and/or jam but can also be filled with sweet or savory ingredients. It’s name technically means “apple slices” in Danish, which can be a bit deceiving, unless you fill or top them with apples, which appears to be one of the traditions associated this tasty treat.
Aebleskivers are made of batter, similar to a pancake, and cooked in a monk pan atop a stove. The pan can be teflon or cast iron. I bought my monk pan from my favorite scandnivian cookware site: Lefse Time.
My Nordicware teflon Aebleskiver pan
To make aebleskivers you pour batter into the holes of the monk pan and cook like a pancake. If using a filling, add batter half way up the hole, add filling and top off with more batter.
Making aebleskivers!
Allow batter to cook until bubbly on one side, then rotate with wooden skewers or knitting needles until cooked around and throughout.
The aebleskiver flip!
Now down to business… the plan for the test kitchen was to test two different aebleskiver pans, two different batters and several different sweet and savory fillings. My partners in crime were my friends Jaime and Kierstin and our official taste-tester, my husband Troy.
The three test cooks: Jaime, Kierstin and me!
Our taste-testing partner: Troy
We used my Teflon aebleskiver pan and Jaime’s grandfathers cast iron pan that was highly seasoned and had been used for years. The aebleskiver recipes came from Jaime’s grandfather and are as follows:
Aebleskiver recipe #1
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp lemon extract or 1/4 ground cardamom Oil for greasing pan
Powdered sugar and jelly or jam for serving
Directions:
Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks. Stir in buttermilk
Sift flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar together and add to buttermilk mixture. Beat only enough to blend. Add vanilla, lemon extract or cardamom. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.
Heat Aebleskiver pan. Put a small amount of cooking oil in each round well (bacon grease is preferred). Fill 3/4 full of batter. When bubbles begin to firm, turn — the traditional turning tool is a metal knitting needle — about 1/4 of the way up. Turn each ball several times. Following the sequence around the pan that you used in pouring in the batter. If pan is too hot, pancake balls will be dark on the outside, raw on the inside. To serve, sprinkle aebleskiver with powdered sugar and serve with jelly, jam or sugar as a snack with coffee, dessert or as a breakfast course. Makes 28 pancake balls.
Testing batters...
Aebleskiver recipe #2
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cardamom
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp milk
Melted butter
Sugar
Directions:
Combine dry ingredients (except baking soda). Add eggs and buttermilk and mix well. Allow to rest 15 minutes. Blend baking soda with milk and add to batter just before baking.
Brush each indentation of aebleskiver pan with melted butter. Pour batter 2/3 full in each. Cook until golden, about 2 minutes, and turn with help of knitting needle. Brown on other side. Roll them in sugar when done. Makes around 20.
We tested a batch of each batter along with seven different fillings. The following are our results!
Review of batters: batter #1 was the better batter overall, it worked well with both savory and sweet fillings and batter #2 was best with only savory ingredients.
Two batters, two pans and two cooks!
Review of pans: the cast iron pan was better overall than the teflon pan, especially on taste, though the Teflon was a bit easier to cook with. Taste: the cast iron pan produced a nice crust when greased with butter and had a warm custardy inside. The Teflon pan produced a more bread-like pastry and was the same consistency all of the way through, which we didn’t prefer. Cooking ability: the cast iron pan was more temperamental and less forgiving. The first side of the aebleskiver would cook much faster than the second and had to be watched carefully to ensure it didn’t burn. This may have been a result of our trying to find the right temperature though. The Teflon pan was easier, it cooked consistently throughout and the temperature was easy to control.
Review of sweet fillings: we tried three different sweet fillings
Sweet aebleskiver fillings
Lingonberry and Raspberry Jam: both good, nice and sweet
Nutella: absolutely devine, our favorite sweet filling!
Nutella filled aebleskivers
Review of savory fillings: we had five savory fillings and each picked our top three
A savory filling contestant: Mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and balsamic
Bacon Cheeseburger (Hamburger, onion, Worcester sauce, hot sauce, grated cheddar cheese and Velveeta cheese): excellent!!! It received three number one rankings, it was by far the most popular savory filling of all
Jalapeno popper ( jalapenos and cream cheese): a hit! It was ranked third by three out of the four of us. To make the filling, we chopped up pickled jalapenos and mixed with cream cheese but we determined it would be best to blend in a food processor to fully mesh the flavors
Buffalo Chicken (diced chicken, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and hot sauce): good. It had one number one ranking, but received honorable mention by everyone else;)
Brie with Prosciutto: this filling was ok and did receive one number three ranking, but definitely needs more prosciutto than brie or the flavor isn’t strong enough
Mozzarella, tomato, basil and balsamic: This was not a great combination. Unfortunately, the flavors weren’t strong enough to make their way through the batter. Though I love these ingredients together, I wouldn’t recommend for an aebleskiver filling
My test kitchen notes...
Final thoughts according to my notes: If you are looking to get into the “aebleskiver game,” I recommend a cast iron pan, recipe #1 listed above, Nutella spread as a sweet filling and bacon cheeseburger, Jalapeno popper and buffalo chicken fillings for savory!
The aebleskiver test kitchen experience was fantastic! I had a great time with Jaime and Kierstin and plan on doing more in the future! What test kitchens would you like to see? What other aebleskiver fillings have you tried or would you like to try?
