Aebleskiver

Ahh, the Danes. They make great food, or at least pastries. Aebleskiver is a pastry or sorts, but is more of a pancake. They are sort of spicy, not in a hot spicy way, rather a they have a variety of spices in them way. They are pretty tasty and you can add a filling or dip them in a jam or syrup or whatever you want to dip them in. So, on with the recipe! Also, it should be noted that an Aebleskiver pan is needed to make them round. They are not too expensive and some stores sell them as "pancake puff pans". Here are a few places you can buy them: Amazon, Target, Food Network, andKitchen Kapers.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of flour
• 2 tablespoons of sugar, vanilla sugar is prefered, but not required
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• A dash of ground nutmeg
• A dash of ground cloves
• 1 egg, beaten until well mixed
• 3/4 of a cup of milk, soy milk works well too
• 2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions

• Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and dry spices in a large bowl
• Mix in the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla until well mixed
• Heat an aebleskier pan over medium heat
• Prepare with cooking spray 
• Pour batter into each cup until about 2/3 full, make sure you remember which one you poured first (that is very important)
• Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until golden.
• Use a skewer to lift one edge and turn it about 1/4 of the way so that the uncooked batter runs out to cook
• Repeat until all sides are golden

How to Fill Aebleskiver

You do not have to fill the Aebleskiver, but it does taste better if you do. There are several ways to do this, I will tell you the two easiest ways that I know. 

The first the one that many are most comfortable with; filling it after they are done. For this you will need a pastry bag or a pastry filler. Put your filling into the bag or filler and stick it into the pancake and fill. Tada! Filled pancake. 

The second is the slightly harder and works best with dense fillings that clump together and does not melt quickly such as Nutella or fruit preserves. For this you will only need to fill the mold 1/3 of the way full of batter. After that you place your filling in the middle so that you cook the pancake around it. 

There you have it. A good Danish recipe, one of my friends said they wanted me post one. Also, these taste good rolled in powdered sugar and if you use a pastry bag to fill the Aebleskiver the sugar clumps around the hole and seals it for you. Isn't that fun? I hope you enjoy making these and like the way they taste!

Kropser

Hei taas! This recipe is practically fail proof and if you can fail at it you are truly special. Traditionally it is served with powdered sugar and honey. For those of you who do not know what a Kropser is, it is a baked Finnish pancake. Little kids will love these and they are good served right out of the pan or as a snack when they've cooled. 


Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
• In a bowl mix together the sugar, flour, and sea salt
• Add the eggs and milk
• Beat until well blended, the batter will be thin like most pancake batter
• Melt the butter in a 9"x13" glass baking pan
• Make sure that the butter has coated all sides of the pan
• Pour the leftover butter into the batter and mix in
• Pour batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until it is all puffed up
• Cool until the pancake has flattened enough to cut easily

Ta-da! I seem to be giving you all a lot of European foods to start with. All the better though! Americans should probably learn to eat things besides fast food all the time. Nauti!