Aebleskiver – Danish pancake balls with jam and powdered sugar

Prepare an aebleskiver pan with 7 hemispherical wells, about 4.5–5 cm in diameter, and a wooden skewer for turning. Weigh the ingredients. Gently melt the butter and separate 50 g for the batter from 15 g for greasing the pan. Let the butter for the batter cool until warm but not hot. Grate the weighed yellow lemon zest. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites; you will use both parts in full. Allow about 10 minutes for this step. If you want to keep the first batches warm, preheat the oven to 100°C during this time.

In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cardamom, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Add all the yolks and all the buttermilk, then whisk until the batter is smooth and fairly thick but pourable. Stir in the 50 g of cooled butter. Allow about 8 minutes to prepare this mixture.

Whip the whites in a clean bowl until they hold their shape with gently bent tips. Fold them into the batter with a spatula in 2–3 additions, using gentle folding motions from underneath. Do not whisk the whole mixture again. Transfer the batter to a jug with a spout, or leave it in the bowl and spoon it into the pan. This step takes about 7 minutes. After folding in the whites, do not leave the batter to rest for a long time.

Once the batter is ready, heat the pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Divide the measured 15 g of butter for greasing into three parts. Use the first part to thinly grease the wells; keep the rest for the following batches. The butter should foam gently, without smoking. Maintain moderate heat during cooking so the center can set before the surface becomes deeply browned.

Fill 7 wells with batter to roughly 3/4 of their depth. Keep the remaining batter for topping up and the following batches. After about 1–2 minutes, when the edges have set and turned lightly golden but the center is still liquid, turn each partly formed ball about 90° with the skewer so it stands on its side. The liquid batter will flow down into the well. If needed, pour a little of the same batter into the open center, then turn another 90° to close the ball.

Continue cooking the balls, turning them several times, until evenly golden. Cooking one batch usually takes about 8–10 minutes in total. If they darken quickly, reduce the heat. If in doubt, cut open one ball from the first batch: the center should be fluffy and set, without uncooked batter. Cook the following batches, greasing the wells each time with another portion of the measured butter. With a pan that has 7 wells, plan three batches of roughly 7, 7, and 6 balls, using all the batter. You can keep the first balls in a dish loosely covered with foil in the oven at 100°C while you cook the rest. Heating the pan, cooking three batches, and the short pauses will take about 40 minutes altogether.

Serve the balls warm. Divide the whole batch into 4 portions, usually about 5 balls each; if the well size changes the number of balls, divide them evenly. Use all 120 g of jam and 20 g of powdered sugar for serving: allow 30 g of jam beside the balls and 5 g of powdered sugar for dusting per portion. Arrange the accompaniments as the last batch finishes cooking. Allow about 1 hour and 5 minutes for the whole recipe.