Aebleskiver - Danish Pancake Balls

The food that evokes the most childhood memories of Christmas and New Years would have to be Aebleskiver, which are literally pancake balls made in a special pan. My Grandmother made them every Christmas, usually as a late night treat after we'd all consumed a full dinner and dessert. Later, my mother would make them at random times throughout the year, but especially at Christmas.

My Grandmother was of German descendant but was raised in Denmark. She worked as a professional cook in private homes before coming to American to marry my Grandfather. (I have a wooden spoon of hers that my mother held onto, it is worn down to a nub on the end. I still use it.) She taught my mother and both were excellent cooks, although baking skills eluded her. My happy memories of her cooking are the aebleskiver and her crepes, which we always called Danish pancakes. My worst memories are of her cookies which were just strange at best, but generally hard and dry.

My recipe is the traditional one handed down by my Grandmother through my mother. It has yeast which makes it a bit of a pain, since that means a two hour rise time (possibly less with fast-acting yeast). There are decent buttermilk recipes out there and I daresay if you've never had the yeast version, they are plenty good. And I have to admit that my Norwegian-American brother-in-law did serve a buttermilk version a few years ago that was every bit as good. But this is Christmas week so here is the real deal.

Aebleskiver

4 Eggs

2 Cups flour

2 Cups rich milk (I take that to mean whole milk which is what I use)

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 Yeast Cake (I use one packet)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cardamon

Dissolve yeast in sugar and salt. (Yes, it dissolves in dry ingredients)

Heat milk to lukewarm (should not burn your wrist but be very warm, as if you were warming formula for a baby)

Blend milk and flour, then add the yeast/sugar mix.

Beat in eggs one at a time (my mom would say if you use an electric mixer, you can add eggs all at once, these instructions are for hand mixing.)

Cover bowl and let rise for two hours (batter will rise to double)

Bake in aebleskiver pan:

An aebleskiver pan is round and has a ring of indentations around it. There is no substitute so do not make this recipe unless you have one or can borrow one. A good pan can be cast aluminum; the old style are cast iron (and apparently becoming valuable).

Spray the pan with non-stick spray before heating. This is obviously a modern touch but the other option is to rub it with oil. In fact, if you have a new cast iron pan, you'd probably better season it first.

Set the pan over medium high heat. In a separate small pan, melt down a good size chunk of shortening. Do not use vegetable oil here and do not use butter. If you really object to shortening, maybe veg oil would be okay but butter burns too fast.

With either a small ladle or a tablespoon, pour a tad of melted shortening into each indentation in the pan. The idea here is that you are deep frying individual balls. Follow with enough batter to almost fill each hole.

When the aebleskiver batter begins to bubble, check to see if one of them is nicely browning. Just use a fork to lift gently and look. If it is not liftable, it has a way to go. You might have to adjust your heat if they seem to brown too fast on the outside but staying raw on the inside. Usually the first batch is the test batch as you adjust heat and oil amounts.

When nicely brown and the batter is looking cooked (think of a pancake being ready to flip, the batter is at least skinned over) flip the balls over in the indentations. A long handled fork is best for this, but I have heard that traditionists use knitting needles. Frankly, that has never worked out for me or my mother -- we seem to be fork people. Any tool that works is good enough.

It only takes about half a minute once they are flipped. Remove them from the pan carefully and place on towels to drain.

This is important: You must pour in fresh melted shortening for each batch you cook. So spoon out another round of oil and then add batter again. While this batch cooks, you can sprinkle powdered sugar on the cooked batch, or you can just wait until they are all finished.

We always put them in baskets (like bread rolls) and passed them around, already sprinkled with powdered sugar. My mother insisted they be eaten with currant jelly or jam which is fine by me, but my kids hate. We've found that lingonberries are quite delicious as a substitute, but any jam or jelly is quite good. My husband loves to put butter on them but they certainly don't need it.

Something I have never done but would like to try is putting the jelly in them while they are cooking, right before turning them. I've also heard putting a small chunk of chocolate in them while cooking is fabulous and I believe it would be.