Growing up during the second and third decades of the twentieth century in Richfield, Utah, Belle Fillmore (Kate’s grandma) and Edith Ann Gunn were best friends. Even after Edith’s life turned fancy (she married Sherman Lloyd, who served as president of the Utah State Senate and eight non-consecutive years in the US House of Representatives), they stayed in touch. Edith gave my grandma a recipe for aebleskivers. 

Grandma kept track of how many people could eat at one sitting. A cousin once managed twenty-four. When Uncle John was eighteen he consumed twenty-eight in a sitting, a record even his strapping teenage nephew was never able to surpass (though he did make it to twenty). They ate them with powdered sugar or maple syrup.

Coincidentally, Sam’s family also claims aebleskivers as a family tradition. His great great Grandma Hendrickson was Danish and her granddaughter, Granny Morris, made them around Christmas, as the Danes do. They also followed the Danish custom of eating them with applesauce, but they added cheese since Grandad Morris was a cheese scientist at the University of Minnesota and often had something good to bring home from the lab. Sam’s immediate family ate them with applesauce and slices from a huge wheel of Gouda that his grandpa mailed from Minnesota every December.

Now we mostly make aebleskivers at Christmas with applesauce and with maple syrup. We also put powdered sugar and jam on the table. I have tried other recipes, but Edith Ann Gunn’s is my favorite. 

AEBLESKIVERS
Serves 5

•  3 eggs, separated

• 1 cup half and half (called “top cream” in the original recipe)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Separate eggs and measure half-and-half so they can warm up a bit outside of the cold refrigerator. Paint the circles of the aebleskiver pan with butter or oil--we like to use coconut oil because the flavor is good and it won’t scorch as easily as butter. 

Measure a cup of flour and put the baking soda and salt on top of it, to avoid dirtying another boil.

Beat the egg whites until they are stiff. It’s important to beat them before anything else, while the beaters are still impeccably clean. Any little grease or yolk in the bowl or on the beater will keep the whites from beating as well. 

Beat the yolks until they are thick and become a lighter color.

Add half and half and dry ingredients to yolk and mix well. Fold in the whites. 

Preheat the aebleskiver pan on medium heat. Sprinkle the pan with a few drops of water; if it is hot enough, the water will sizzle. Fill each cavity near to the top with batter, using a cookie-dough scoop if you have one. When the aebleskivers form a crust, turn each one on its end using the traditional knitting needle or a bamboo skewer, (we think the skewer is easier to work with). Less than a minute later, turn them again so they have turned into full spheres.

Once they are brown on all sides and cooked through, move them to a serving platter. Enjoy the aebleskivers sprinkled with powdered sugar and raspberry jam, applesauce, or maple syrup.