These Danish Aebleskiver Pancakes are soft, round, and golden on the outside with a fluffy center. They’re often filled with sweet or savory surprises like jam, chocolate, or cheese. Enjoy them as a cozy breakfast, a festive treat, or a fun snack.
When your usual pancake routine starts to feel a little dull, it’s the perfect time to try Aebleskiver. These round Danish pancakes (also known as ebleskiver) are cooked in a special pan with small molds that give them their signature shape. Imagine a cross between pancakes and donut holes but with the airy lightness of a popover.
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Danish Aebleskiver pancakes are about the size of golf balls and are as versatile as they are fun to make. You can fill them with almost anything, starting with classic options like jam, jelly, or marmalade. Or try chopped apples with cinnamon or mashed bananas with toasted pecans. If you're in the mood for something richer, dark chocolate and nut butter would be amazing.
In Denmark, Aebleskiver is more of a snack or dessert than a breakfast staple. They’re especially popular around Christmas and New Year’s, enjoyed at family gatherings or from street vendors on chilly winter days. Traditionally, they’re dusted with powdered sugar and served with a warm mug of glogg, a fragrant Scandinavian mulled wine that makes the experience feel extra festive.
🥰 Why You'll Love this Recipe
- You can use a variety of fillings. Since they're individually cooked, each little pancake can be filled with something different, making them perfect for sharing with a crowd and offering multiple flavors to meet varying preferences.
- They're a fun alternative to the typical pancake. Round, bite-sized, and filled with something tasty. What's not to love?
- They're like homemade donut holes but without having to deep fry anything. I'm not saying they're healthier donuts, but that's one way of looking at things.
For more tasty filled snacks, try these:
🌾 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make this aebleskiver recipe.
- Flour
- Buttermilk
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vegetable oil
- Jam or other fillings
- Baking soda and baking powder
- Salt
See the recipe card below for the complete list of ingredients and quantities.
💡 Substitutions & Variations
- Buttermilk: Instead of buttermilk, use your preferred milk and add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Let the milk sit for 5 minutes before using.
- Crisper and lighter pancakes: Separate the egg yolks and whites. Beat the whites until fluffy. Add the yolks with the buttermilk and oil. Gently fold in the whites after combining the wet and dry ingredients to incorporate.
- Without filling: Skip the filling and use more batter in the pan to fill the mold. Serve with various condiments for dipping.
- More perfectly round aebleskiver: Instead of rotating the pancake balls just once, rotate them about 90 degrees four times throughout cooking.
- Creative aebleskiver fillings: Try your favorite jam, marmalade, cranberry sauce, or something more savory, such as cream cheese. Chocolate sauce, chopped fruit, or a piece of cheese could all work, too.
🥣 Instructions
How to make Danish aebleskiver pancakes.
- Step 1: Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Step 2: In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and oil.
- Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and stir only enough to combine.
- Step 4: Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
- Step 5: Coat the aebleskiver pan well with butter, oil, or cooking spray.
- Step 6: Fill the aebleskiver molds about halfway with the pancake batter.
- Step 7: Add about ½ teaspoon of your filling of choice.
- Step 8: Top off each of the molds with more pancake batter.
- Step 9: Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the edges are set. Then, use chopsticks to gently flip over each aebleskiver.
- Step 10: Cook for another couple of minutes, then remove them from the pan. Add more butter or oil to each mold, then repeat the filling and cooking process with the rest of the batter.
🔥 Helpful Tips
- Be sure to adjust the heat as needed while cooking the abelskiver.
- Add more butter, oil, or cooking spray in between each batch of pancakes to prevent sticking.
- Turn off the heat as needed while you flip and remove the pancakes from the pan. The pan can get hot very quickly and your pancakes may burn.
- You can keep aebleskiver warm in a 200 ° F oven as you cook more.
🍳 Equipment
Aebleskiver cast iron pan: An essential piece of equipment for making these pancakes. These pans have several round molds for filling and creating the shape that makes them extra special. I've seen some that are non-stick, but I generally prefer cast iron. And they're good for more than just making aebleskiver. Here are a few ideas.
Wooden chopsticks: Help to rotate the pancakes around the round molds of the aebleskiver pan.
🫙 Storage
These pancakes are best enjoyed as soon after cooking as possible. While you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days, they quickly soften and lose their shape, so I don't recommend it. I don't recommend freezing them, either.
🙋🏻♀️ FAQ
The legend is that aebleskiver were created by Vikings while out at sea. They wanted pancakes, yet lacked a pan to make them in. So they used their dented armor instead. When they flipped the pancakes in the rounded dents, they created the spherical pancake shapes now known as aebleskiver. Whether this is accurate remains debatable.
The name aebleskiver, when translated from Dutch, means “apple slices” and refers to the traditional apple filling. From what I can tell, apple filling doesn’t seem to be as common today. In fact, they're not always filled. Instead, jam or a sauce is served on the side for dipping.
You can try using a mix to make aebleskiver, however, since mixes vary so much from one to another, it is hard to say how well your particular mix will work to make these pancake balls.
Flip aebleskiver using chopsticks. After you let the pancake cook for a couple of minutes and you’ve added your filling, you can use the skewer or needle to sneak around the sides. It might take you a few tries before you get it right, and that’s fine. Just eat your mistakes and no one will ever know.
🥚 Pairing
📖 Recipe
Danish Aebleskiver Pancakes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: about 3 dozen aebleskivers 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Danish Aebleskiver Pancakes are soft, round, and golden on the outside with a fluffy center. They’re often filled with sweet or savory surprises like jam, chocolate, or cheese. Enjoy them as a cozy breakfast, a festive treat, or a fun snack.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons of melted butter or vegetable oil, plus plenty for greasing the pan
- various fillings, such as jam, jelly, applesauce, or fruit butter
- powdered sugar (optional, for serving)
Instructions
- Make the batter. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. In a second bowl, whisk the eggs with the buttermilk and butter or oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and stir just enough to combine everything. Let sit for 15 minutes. This helps the flour to hydrate and any lumps to dissolve.
- Prep the pan and start cooking. Heat your aebleskiver pan over medium-low heat. Brush the pan with liberally with melted butter, oil, or cooking spray. When hot, add a tablespoon of batter to each indentation. Spoon about a half teaspoon of filling into each mold, then top them off with enough batter to fill the molds.
- Let the pancakes cook for 2-3 minutes or until the edges are set, adjusting the heat as needed to prevent burning.
- Flip the aebleskiver. When the edges are cooked, stick a chopstick around the side of each mold and flip each aebleskiver over to the other side. The inside batter will still be uncooked; you will want to flip it over to finish cooking. This may take a few tries, but you'll get the hang of it. Cook for another couple of minutes on the other side before removing them from the pan using two chopsticks.
- Repeat the process. Brush the molds with more butter or oil, then repeat the process with the remaining batter and filling. Serve the pancakes immediately with powdered sugar and maple syrup. They may also be briefly kept warm on a pan in a 200 degree oven.
Notes
After each pancake, brush the pan with more butter and oil.
Monitor the heat level and adjust as needed to avoid burning the pancakes.
The aebleskiver are delicate, so handle them as gently as you can.
The amount of servings can really vary depending on if you're serving these as a snack or part of a breakfast with other items.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Danish
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