Recipe Wednesday: Aebleskiver

Recipe Wednesday is inspired by the Youngrens, California photographers who cook, photograph, and post recipes on periodic Sundays.  Cooking good wholesome food is something that is very important to my wife and I so I’ve decided to start documenting our kitchen adventures.  You’ll see pictures and recipes from books that are quickly becoming our go-to guides.  Hopefully it can give you some ideas for your own kitchen.

When I studied aborad in Denmark in college, I fell in love with so many things.  The culture, the history, the traditions.

And some tasty little Christmas treats called aebleskiver.  Though I’m terrible at correctly pronouncing the name (I was pretty terrible at Danish in general), I look forward to making a fresh batch of these delicious donut-like pastries every Christmas season.  This year, we whipped out a batch on New Year’s Even and enjoyed them alongside our seven-layer dip, stuffed jalapenos (stay tuned for the recipe for that next week), and homemade sangria.

The trickiest part is flipping the aebleskiver halfway through the cooking process, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Aebleskiver

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cardamon
1 tsp. baking soda
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 lemon, zested
oil or butter for each hole

Heat cast iron aebleskiver pan on the stove while you mix ingredients.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until batter is thoroughly moistened.  Batter will be a litte lumpy.  When pan is hot, drop a small dollop of butter into each hole until it melts (should happen quickly,  butter may steam for a few seconds).  Before the butter burns, pour batter into each hole, filling almost to the top. Be sure not to overfill the holes as the batter expands a little bit as it cooks.  Let the batter cook for about 30 to 45 seconds until the edges start to look cooked and the batter starts to bubble (should look similar to how pancakes look when its time to flip them).  Insert a skewer or knitting needle into one of the holes at a 45 degree angle until the needle hits the other side of the hole.  Quickly flip the aebleskiver over so the uncooked batter falls down into the hole.  Continue to cook for another 30 – 45 seconds until the aebleskiver is cooked through and the outside is nicely golden brown.

Serve with strawberry jam and powdered sugar for a delicious, spicy, Christmas treat.