My dad was Danish. For many years we drove to Janesville, Wisconsin at Christmastime to spend it with dad’s only living relatives, his cousins who had kids about my age. That was always fun for me because until I visited them, I had never seen a truck drive across a pond or lake, ridden on a snow mobile, put butter on a roast beef sandwich instead of mustard, eaten steak tartar, stollen, or Evil Skeevers – and those turned out to be my favorites. Aebleskivers are a Danish pancake or donut traditionally made with apples. Preparation requires a special pan that looks more like an egg poacher than anything else. The cousin’s pans were heavy gauge cast iron and must have weighed a ton. I loved to sit and watch them being made because knitting needles were used to flip the pastry over inside the “hole” and that was pretty amazing to me. My dad said his mom used to make them for him during Advent but he didn’t get to have them much since his mother passed away. He always looked forward to cousins Dorothy and Dee making them each year when we went to visit.
I’m not sure why I thought of them this week. It’s not like Okies have big ol’ Aebleskiver parties or billboards lining our roadways advertising the pans, and you certainly can’t find Evil Skeevers at IHOP (that’s a restaurant). For whatever reason, they popped into my head and I had to make some. I was going to order a pan from Williams-Sonoma because it was on ½ price one day last week but I forgot and didn’t make the sale. While the hubs was tending his booth at the flea market this weekend I went for a visit and looksee – where lo and behold, there was a cast iron Aebleskiver pan marked “German Muffin Pan or something”. Since the seller didn’t know what it was, I told her and quickly paid for the item lugging it back to the booth where Mr. Picky eater looked at me like I had just purchased maternity clothes! In other words, he had no idea why I would buy something like that. The pan is home now and properly cleaned. This will be the first batch I have ever made myself so I’m a little nervous. Mom gave me Dorothy and Dee’s recipe. She had it in her recipe book so I know it’s authentic but how much it will taste like the ones I remember is anyone’s guess, especially since I will be using my leftover chocolate ganache from the Swiss Cake Roll instead of apples. This is the recipe as written:
Evil Skeevers (Aebleskivers)
Ingredients
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Milk
1 Tablespoon granulated Sugar
2 Eggs, separated
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking Powder
½ Stick of Butter (plus more)
1 Cup finely chopped and cooked apples – should measure 1 cup after cooking not before.
Powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
Sift flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
Beat egg yolks and milk together then stir in melted butter.
Whip, using beater, egg whites until they form soft peaks (2-3 minutes).
Mix milk and eggs into dry ingredients until just combined, then gently fold in the egg whites.
Turn stove on medium and place pan on burner.
Melt butter and fill each “hole” with about 1/4 teaspoon and brush up sides with a brush.
Fill each “hole” with 1 scant Tablespoon of the batter and then, very carefully, put a scant teaspoon of apples (or chocolate ganache!) in the very middle of each pastry. Finally, put 1 scant Tablespoon on top. It works best if the filling is cold so it won’t run out of the middle before the batter cooks.
Cook for 70 to 90 seconds and then flip each donut with a knitting needle, skewer, toothpicks, or even a fork allowing cooking another minute or so, until brown. They should look like this:
Scoop out of pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar if wanted.
There are a million ways to make these and I bet you could fill it with a bit of holiday cheese ball or a cube of cheese with bacon – really just anything you can come up with would be delightful. My advice? Work really fast!
Mine came out a little messy but….MMmmmmm….. They are almost the way I remember them. I guess I’ll have to practice some more!
They look pretty delicious, though! Even if they are ‘messy’, haha.
They remind me of pancake puffs. I’ve never had them, but my insomnia-driven late night infomercial watching has taught me that one of the newest ‘as seen on TV’ products is called Pancake Puffs, and it’s a pan like that. I’m going to have to keep my eyes open for the real deal in the spring when I can return to the flea market 😉
yeah, look for a cast iron one – I think if you got one of the teflon ones it would burn the food – it just doesn’t spread out the heat enough. So you don’t have flea markets in the winter there………hmmmm….that’s when we have most of ours but then, they are inside.
It gets a lot colder here, I guess. We have a TON of outside ones in the warmer months…. but the few indoor ones in the winter aren’t worth it, IMO. We always find better stuff in the summer.
So I checked out this As Seen On TV Pancake Puffs Pan and it is an Aebleskiver pan – so it’s either $20 on Amazon or at Wal-mart as far as I can tell – They had some pretty good ideas for other kinds of puffs. I do think I’ll stick with apple for a while until I get my technique perfected! : )
I’ll have to start looking into the quality of the pancake puff pan… maybe I’ll just go that route if I can’t find a real pan. I’ve been really into collecting vintage baking dishes lately, so meh. It’ll be worth the searching!
I love the hunt!! I think any one would do fine – just keep the burner on low to medium even though they all say medium high – it’s too much and they will burn!
ok, thanks for the tips 😀
Haha if these are evil I am coming to the dark side 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I think I must have forgotten to say that’s what we called them as kids – mostly because it was fun to say! 🙂
I’m sure I’d love them but I’m not likely to get them here in German Cincinnati.
Lillian
lillianscupboard.wordpress.com
I grew up in Rhode Island and one of my fondest, most vivid memories is my dad driving the tractor across our little pond in winter to clear the snow off the ice and make us an ice skating rink! Always amazing to see!
I’m going to pass this recipe onto my mom who has a bed and breakfast, she makes German pancakes or Hootenanies (sp?) all the time, she needs to give these a try too!
Thanks! They are really good and while the ones with chocolate/heavy cream in the middle were a little messy – they were outstanding taste-wise! The apple is still the best though……..going to try them tonight!
How exciting that you were able top get such a great deal – Never had these before but sure would like to try them 🙂
I made the traditional apple tonight and I think I liked that even more! Thank you for dropping by!
Oooh these look WONDERFUL! I would die if I could eat just one of those (like…die in a good way :P)
Thank you!
I have wanted to taste aebleskivers ever since I first saw a photo of them. But I don’t have the pan and no place around here serves them. One of these days…one of these days…
Thanks Anita – they taste very light with just a hint of sweetness – people say they are like pancakes but they don’t taste like any pancakes I’ve every had. More like crepes wrapped around something gooey and delicious! 🙂
I bought a cast-iron Aebleskiver pan a couple of years ago and only made them once because they stuck. I guess I need to season my pan better and give them another try. Yours came out beautifully! 🙂
Thank you very much! Brushing that butter in the little holes helps and then I didn’t put my burner as high as they said to either – lower and slower is better for me, particularly when I don’t know what I’m doing!
What a great find! You never know what you’ll stumble upon at a flea market! These look so yummy. And they’re an excuse to use powdered sugar, which is my favorite kind of excuse.
They were so good – last night I made another batch for the lady at the flea market but my husband ate every single one of them after I went to bed last night and so she didn’t get any! I guess it’s the thought that counts, right? 🙂
I had the pleasure to eat some of these at an aunts house when I was just a small boy over 50 years ago and never forgot them. I’m a pretty good cook and although pastries are not my forte, I might try my hand at making them just for old times sake.
They are so easy and the taste is wonderful to remember! I hope you do!
You should take part in a contest for one of the highest quality
websites on the web. I most certainly will highly recommend
this blog!
I used to have a recipe for these delightful little things — I’ve even got the pan! (yes, it’s Teflon & I’ve never had a problem) I’d forgotten about them, as hubs was diagnosed T2 diabetic 7 yrs ago, so I haven’t made them in forever 🙄
I will say my fav fillings are cherry or fig jam for sweet filling, & ham-n-cheese as savory filling. They aren’t hard to make, just “fiddly”.
Now I’m gonna look for a recipe using almond flour, so we can again enjoy these wonderful treats!