A Childhood Favorite . . . Re-born!

A while ago, some good friends of mine posted a blog about serving breakfast to a bunch of teenagers that really caught my eye.  (You can read about it here.)  They made aebleskivers - a fun Danish pancake that is round, like a ball.  I remember my mother making these when I was a little girl.  I am SO glad my mom made the effort to make us this fun treat. We usually would have them for a Sunday night snack and drench them in syrup.  I remembered my mother using a cast iron pan, so after reading Rachel's blog, I went out and bought an aebleskiver cast iron pan.  

I came home and tried a recipe out from Williams-Sonoma with Kelsey on Sunday morning and it was not good.  The pancakes kept sticking and were extremely difficult to turn and brown evenly.  We ate the aebleskivers that survived----but I thought there has just got to be a better cooking pan that has been modernized since then.  So, I checked the Williams-Sonoma website, and sure enough---there was!

Nordicware has come out with a non-stick, cool handled aebleskiver pan.  It was a hundred times lighter in weight than the cast iron one and SOOOOOOO much easier to use.  Plus, it only cost $5 more than the cast iron pan.  (well worth the extra $5~~~)

 I also read that the traditional way to turn the aebleskivers was to use knitting needles, or long wooden sticks that Williams-Sonoma had for sale.  But the saleslady told me that these mini-spatulas work even better (and she was right!)  Yeah for technology and modern devices that make our life easier!!

 I tried two recipes - one that was like a tarte-tatin (apple inside) with a carmel sauce and the other was plain, with a raspberry compote and powdered sugar.  Both were YUMMY!!!  (But my favorite was the apple and carmel)

I had forgotten that my grandmother's maiden name was Halverson. Generations before, their name was spelled "Halvorson" which is the Scandinavian way of spelling it.  Through the ages, the spelling changed---but it was a great reminder to me that this treat came through my family for a reason.  I looked up the legend of aebleskivers and the story my kids liked the best was that the vikings, a long time ago, would go to battle.  At night, they were very hungry and would want to eat pancakes.  So, they used their shields, which had divets and dents from battle, as a cooking pan.  They would pour the batter in the little indentations, and make aebleskivers.  The meaning of the word, aebleskiver, actually means "apple slices."  That's why I had to try the carmel apple recipe.  It's amazing!!!  You can get the recipe here.  Beware - it's lethal!!