Æbleskiver - American Pancakes - Pancake Layer Cake

Name: Æbleskiver - American Pancakes - Pancake Layer Cake
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min

April 11, 2023

Prep 10 min Total 30 min

Pancakes and æbleskiver for a family dinner © kvalifood.com

Recipe with video — Classic Nordic food. A round cake baked in a special pan that every Dane knows and loves. Good with icing sugar, jam, or syrup. The same batter can also be used to make the small thick American pancakes you often see in films. And it works just as well for making a nice layer cake.

Æbleskiver with icing sugar and rose hip jam © kvalifood.com

Ingredients

240 g flour (4 dl) (substitute with 120 g almond flour + 120 g corn flour for gluten-free)
1/4 tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 dl buttermilk
1 tsp grated lemon zest
3 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

For frying

melted butter (or cooking spray)

Directions

Separate the egg whites from the yolks into a mixing bowl.

Add the lemon juice and sugar to the whites.

Mix the remaining ingredients in another bowl and stir into a thick, smooth batter.

Whisk the whites with the sugar and lemon juice until stiff.

Fold the whites into the batter.

Bake the æbleskiver over medium heat.

Fill the holes in the pan to about 3/4.

You need about ½ tsp butter and ½ dl batter per æbleskiver.

When the edges start to set and you can turn them without them falling apart, turn them for the first time and let the liquid batter run to the bottom.

When the whole surface is firm, turn them regularly so they become golden and crispy all over.

Directions: American pancakes

Mix the batter as for æbleskiver.

Fry them in a regular pan over medium heat.

The pancakes should be about 5–10 cm wide. That is just over ½ dl (3–4 tbsp) of batter per pancake. The batter is fairly thick, so they don’t spread out as much as Danish pancakes. This also means you just pour the batter onto the pan and it will settle to the right thickness by itself.

Fry them on one side until the bubbles that form in the batter no longer disappear — meaning they leave holes at the edges that stay.

Flip them and fry until golden on the other side.

American pancakes with butter and syrup © kvalifood.com

Directions: “pancake layer cake”

1 dl extra buttermilk in the batter so it spreads more easily to fill the pan.
1/4–½ litre jam between the layers. (Use whatever you like — Nutella or anything else works.)
Whipped cream from ¼ litre of cream, or: 2 dl icing sugar + 1 tbsp water, for a glaze.

Mix the batter as for æbleskiver. There is no real reason to whisk the egg whites separately here — just mix the wet ingredients first, then fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda at the end.

Fry them over medium heat as full-pan pancakes.

Use about 1½–2 dl of batter per pancake. This gives about 6 pancakes with a medium-sized pan.

Let the pancakes cool.

Layer the pancakes with jam between each one.

Whip the cream and cover the cake. This is my favourite!

or:

Mix a thick glaze from icing sugar and water and spread it over the top pancake.

Pancake layer cake © kvalifood.com

Gluten-free

Essentially the same recipe — just a slightly different flour blend.

A batch of æbleskiver made gluten-free. Instead of 240 g plain flour I used 120 g almond flour and 120 g corn flour. They actually turned out slightly better than usual. © kvalifood.com

Notes

I personally think that American pancakes were developed by Scandinavians who didn’t bring an æbleskiver pan with them when they emigrated to the US and so had to use a regular flat pan instead. The batter is at any rate exactly the same.

Because the batter produces quite airy pancakes, it is also the best pancake batter for a layer cake.

You don’t have to use buttermilk. Yoghurt, soured milk, ymer, and similar work just as well. Just thin it with a little regular milk so the batter doesn’t get too thick.