Who’s ready for aebleskiver?  What, you’ve never heard of aebleskiver?  Well, you won’t be able to say that anymore after we talk about

Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver

Okay, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had never heard of aebleskiver.  I hadn’t until a chance viewing of The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network in which someone (Duff Goldman maybe?) mentioned how much he loved the things.  I didn’t give it much thought until I happened to meet Aunt Else Aebleskiver on Twitter, who started a company selling all organic aebleskiver mixes, complete with their own hardware!

When she offered me a pan, I absolutely jumped at the chance to try them out for myself.  So she sent me Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver Starter Kit (scroll down to the bottom of the page to order one for yourself!) which included my really cool 9 hole aebleskiver pan, a bag of mix, a stainless steel chopstick that was probably from Shop Chopsticks (I am guessing so given that they were exquisite), and the heat resistant handle cover.  Like it says, it was everything I needed to get started aebleskivering.

What is an Aebleskiver?

An Aebleskiver is a Danish pastry (and believe me the Danish know pastries.  Think about it, they had one named after them.)   Strangely enough, the term Aebleskiver means “apple slice” since they were originally filled with apples, though more modern versions come filled with any number of savory and sweet combinations.

Personally, I tend to think of it as a pancake dumpling.  When I was mixing the batter, it looked a lot like pancake batter (and bubbled like it, too.)  However, the batter is poured into holes maybe two inches around and fried to make things that look like dumplings.  Top with powdered sugar, maybe a little syrup, and boom!  Aebleskiver.

I love the contrasting textures in the aebleskivers.  The outside of the aebleskiver is firm and tender while the inside is moist, tender, and chewy.  They are a perfect little bite that is surprisingly unsweet without the assistance of the aforementioned powdered sugar.

There is One Problem: Making the Aebleskiver is HARD!

To make an aebleskiver, one must:

1. Season your pan if it’s brand new because Aunt Else just sent it to you.
2. Heat your pan
3. Make your batter
4. Pour in about 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil
5. Fill the aebleskiver hole about 90% of the way up
6. Let the oil fry the batter forming a stiff outer edge (this should take as long as it takes to fill the aebleskiver holes)
7. Stick your chopstick or special Aunt Else aebleskiver chopstick into the batter and pull up the already cooked outside and quarter turn.  (The instructions refer to this as turn.  I would have called it a pull or a flip myself since your are pulling the outside out of the pan rather than rotating it.)
8. Wait a bit, turn them again.
9. Finally, turn them a final time.

Now, if you are reading this and thinking “what?”  It’s okay, I was to.  I had to find an online demo of how to make the darn things, like the one Aunt Else has on her Aunt Else’s Organic Aebleskiver homepage.  I would highly recommend you don’t even THINK about making an aebleskiver without watching that video.  Twice.

Even then, it will probably take several tries to really figure out the aebleskivering process.

My hope is that I can get Aunt Else to come on the blog and help us figure out  a few things.

1.  The directions say that the pan should be “hot.”  However, how hot is hot?  And conversely, how hot is too hot?  (I know I found too hot once, but that’s a different story.

2.  When, precisely, do I know that the outside is set.  I think that’s the key to knowing when to turn.

Still, once it’s all said and done, you can truly sit back and say that you have learned a skill only a few possess!  Then you, too, can sit back with a big plate of these little Danish fried goodies and truly enjoy.

Notes I learned the hard way:

• The handle guard that comes with the aebleskiver pan is flammable.  At least I think it’s flammable.  It might be some batter got inside of it and that caught on fire.  One way or the other, don’t leave it on the handle when making aebleskiver.