Aebleskiver Pan: How to Make Danish Pancake Balls at Home

The first batch is always a little lopsided. Someone hovers by the stove, a bamboo skewer in one hand, coffee in the other, and the kitchen smells like butter and cardamom. By the third batch, the turn becomes a flick of the wrist and the pancakes come out round. That’s the whole learning curve.

An aebleskiver pan is a heavy pan with seven deep, round wells. You fill each well with batter, let the bottom set, then rotate the half-cooked pancake so the raw batter runs down and cooks into a sphere. The result is light inside, crisp outside, and very hard to stop eating. Here’s how to get it right in cast iron — the heat, the turn, and the batter we make every December.

What an aebleskiver pan does, and why cast iron suits it

Aebleskiver (æbleskiver in Danish) means “apple slices.” Older recipes tucked a piece of apple into the middle. Most modern ones leave it out and serve the pancakes plain, with powdered sugar and jam for dipping. In Denmark they’re a December tradition, often eaten with gløgg.

The pan does one job: it holds batter in a deep, rounded cup and keeps it at a steady heat while the pancake slowly cooks from the outside in. That steadiness is why cast iron is the traditional choice. Pour cool batter into seven wells at once and a thin pan drops in temperature, so the first pancakes brown and the last ones stay pale. A heavy cast iron pan barely flinches.

Cast iron also browns well and, once seasoned, releases cleanly. Our 8.5″ (22 cm) Aebleskiver Pan is raw, unenameled iron, foundry-seasoned and ready to use, and it works on gas, electric, induction and over a campfire.

8″ Cast Iron Aebleskiver (Ebelskiver) Pan

$170

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Getting the heat right

Nearly every aebleskiver problem is a heat problem. Too hot and the outside burns before the middle sets. Too cool and the batter sticks and won’t hold a shape when you turn it.

Set the pan over medium heat and give it a full five minutes. Cast iron heats slowly, but it heats evenly once it gets there. Test it with a few drops of water: they should hiss and skate away within a second or two. If they sit and simmer, wait. If they vanish instantly with a loud crack, turn the heat down and give it a minute.

Once the first batch is in, leave the dial alone. The pan holds its temperature well, and chasing it with the knob is how batches go uneven. If the pancakes are browning faster than they’re setting, nudge the heat down a notch and live with it for the next batch.

Filling and turning

Put about half a teaspoon of butter in each well. Let it foam. Then fill each well to just below the rim, around two-thirds full if you plan to add a filling, nearly full if not.
Now wait. After two to three minutes the edges will look set and the surface will start to bubble. Slide a bamboo skewer or a knitting needle down the side of one well and lift the pancake a quarter turn. Raw batter will spill into the well beneath. That’s what you want.

Give each pancake another quarter turn after a minute, then another, until the ball is closed. Total time is four to five minutes a batch. A finished aebleskiver feels light and sounds slightly hollow when you tap it; a skewer pushed into the center should come out clean.

A few things that help:

Work in one direction. Start at the same well every time, so the first pancake in is the first one turned.
Use a skewer, not a fork. Forks scratch the seasoning and tear the shell.
Re-butter every batch. A dry well is a sticking well.
Expect the first batch to be a test. It almost always is, in any pan.

If they do stick, the pan probably needs more butter, more heat, or a little more seasoning built up. Our guide to non-stick cooking with cast iron covers the details.

Recipe: cardamom aebleskiver

Makes about 35 (five batches in a seven-well pan). Prep: 15 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes.

Ingredients

2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (12 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 large eggs, separated
2 cups (480 ml) buttermilk
4 tablespoons (55 g) unsalted butter, melted, plus about 3 tablespoons (40 g) for the pan
Powdered sugar and jam, to serve

Method

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom in a large bowl.
In a second bowl, whisk the egg yolks, buttermilk and melted butter. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. A few lumps are fine.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold them into the batter in two additions, gently, so you keep the air.
Heat the pan over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add ½ teaspoon butter to each well.
Fill the wells, cook 2–3 minutes until the edges set, then turn a quarter at a time until round and golden, 4–5 minutes in total.
Move to a warm plate, dust with powdered sugar, and repeat with the rest of the batter.

The whipped whites are what make these light. Skip them and you’ll get something closer to a dense doughnut hole. Good, but not the same thing.

Fillings worth trying

Once the turn feels natural, filling is easy. After you pour, drop a little filling into the center of each well, then add a spoonful of batter over it to seal before the first turn.

Apple, the original: a small cube of tart apple, softened first in butter and a pinch of cinnamon.
Lingonberry or raspberry jam: half a teaspoon, no more, or it leaks.
Sharp cheddar and chives for a savory version. Leave out the cardamom and add black pepper.
Chocolate: one square of dark chocolate per well. Children approve.

Cast the old way

We’ve been pouring iron in Skeppshult, in the Småland forests of southern Sweden, since 1906. Each pan is sand-cast in a single-use mold of local river sand, and the sand goes back into production afterward. The furnaces run on Swedish wind and hydroelectric power. Before a pan leaves the foundry, we season it with organic, KRAV-certified rapeseed oil from Österlen, so the wells of a new aebleskiver pan are ready for butter the day it arrives. It’s a slow way to make cookware. It also means the pan you buy now can turn aebleskiver for whoever inherits it. More on how we work at Crafted in Sweden.

Caring for your aebleskiver pan

The wells are the only tricky part. Let the pan cool until you can handle it, then wipe each well with a paper towel. If batter has stuck, add hot water, wait a minute, and use a soft brush. Skip the dishwasher and long soaks.

Dry it fully over low heat, then rub a thin film of oil into each well and wipe out the excess. That’s all the maintenance it needs. If the wells ever look dull or patchy, a round of re-seasoning brings them back. Our cleaning and maintenance guide has the full routine.

If you’re more of a flat-pancake household, the same care applies to our Pancake Pan, and our guide to Swedish pancakes has a batter to go with it.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a special pan to make aebleskiver?

Yes. The round shape comes from the deep, half-spherical wells, and a flat pan or griddle can’t hold batter that way. A takoyaki pan can stand in, but its wells are smaller and shallower, so you’ll get smaller pancakes. For the traditional size and shape, a seven-well aebleskiver pan is the tool. Cast iron is the classic material because it holds even heat across all seven wells.

Why are my aebleskiver raw in the middle?

The heat is almost always too high. The outside browns and seals before the center has time to cook. Turn the burner down a notch and let the pan settle for a minute. Turning too late can cause it too. Rotate as soon as the edges set, so the raw batter flows down into the hot well. A skewer should come out clean from a finished pancake.

Can you use an aebleskiver pan on an induction cooktop?

A raw cast iron aebleskiver pan works on induction, as well as on gas, electric and an open flame. Heat it gradually on a medium setting rather than at full power, which gives the iron time to warm evenly across all the wells. Lift the pan to move it rather than sliding it, to protect the glass surface.

What do you serve with aebleskiver?

In Denmark, the classic is powdered sugar for dusting and raspberry or strawberry jam for dipping. They’re traditionally eaten through December, often with gløgg, the Scandinavian mulled wine. Lingonberry jam, maple syrup and lemon curd all work well too. Savory versions filled with cheese go nicely with a bowl of soup.

Your first batch

The first batch won’t be perfect, and that’s fine. Make it on a slow weekend morning when nobody’s in a hurry, with the coffee on and someone at the table waiting with the jam. By the second batch you’ll find the timing. By the fifth, you’ll be the one people ask to make them every December.

If you’re ready to start, take a look at our 8.5″ Aebleskiver Pan, or read up on using your cast iron first.