Almond Æbleskiver with Warm Mixed Berry Compote
An interview with Pim Pauline Overgaard and a recipe from her new cookbook, Æbleskiver
Happy Holidays! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and/or is enjoying Hanukkah and/or is enjoying a few days of winter quiet. I always feel like the time before Christmas and New Years—when school is off and most offices are closed and almost no one is really expecting you to do much work—is a perfect time for fun cooking projects. When else am I going to have the time to hang out in the kitchen and slowly work my way through learning a new skill or exploring a new food?
So, I thought this week would be the perfect time to share a recipe from Pim Pauline Overgaard’s gorgeous new book Æbleskiver, an exploration of a classic Danish treat (round pancake-like balls) that includes lots of both sweet and savory recipes—and, as you can see above, gorgeous photography. Pim (who is the Head Design Manager of Williams Sonoma’s home textiles) is Swedish and Norwegian and grew up in Sweden. But she went to school in Copenhagen, and she loves all things Danish. Last month Pim told me about how she came to California, fell in love with æbleskiver in Solvang(!) and came to write this book. I’ve shared Pim’s story below (in her own words, edited and condensed a bit) along with one of her recipes to get you started on exploring this fun and delicious food.
Before I dive into today’s story and recipe, a tiny bit of self-promotion: If you haven’t done so, check out my new Substack, Snacking Dinners! It’s based on the idea behind my upcoming cookbook—that dinner can be fast, delicious, and also fun—and I’ll be sending out free recipes once a week. Check it out! I’d love your feedback!
Pim Pauline Overgaard
My mom is from the very northern parts of Norway, from Narvik, which is the land of the midnight sun. And my dad is from the very south of Sweden, and they met in southern Sweden, so that's where I grew up, but spending a lot of time in Northern Norway with my relatives there.
And because Sweden is so close to Denmark, I lived in Malmö for many years, which is right across the bay from Copenhagen. Now there's a bridge so you can drive or take the subway, and 10 minutes you're there in Copenhagen. But when I lived there, you had to take the ferry. When I went to school for a while in Copenhagen, I took the ferry every morning, which was great. I love Stockholm, but my favorite city in Scandinavia is Copenhagen.
My first real traditional Scandinavian food was from my grandma; she took care of me a lot when I was little. And she is from that generation where everything was made from scratch. So, she did all the foods, from meatballs and potatoes to all the different typical Scandinavian foods.
In Sweden we have definitely have Scandinavian cuisine, which is strong still today. In almost any restaurant you can get all the basic meatballs and all of that. But Swedes are also really shamelessly mixing in all different cultures in their food. Like you can go if you get pizza, you can get kebab pizza, which is a pizza with kebab meat and some kind of tzatziki sauce on top. Or you can get steak pizza which has like sliced rib eye and French fries on top of the pizza. They mix and match every kind of cuisine.
I came to California because I had a boyfriend at the time who got a scholarship to somewhere in the middle of the country, like Ohio or somewhere, and he wanted me to come with him. I was never interested in going to America at all, but I asked all my friends who had ever been, If they were to go back, where would they go? And 100% said San Francisco. So I told my boyfriend at the time, If you were going to San Francisco, I'd come with you. He moved all his scholarship and everything here, and I decided to go to fashion school. We ended up breaking up breaking up six weeks later. He's back in Sweden (we're still friends), and I ended up here.
I went to fashion school. I started in a different area, and then I went to textiles, and then I went to different work environments. I love math and all of that, and putting things together and creating things, and also design and food. There’s always been those three components to everything I love to do.
About 20 years ago, when I was already here, two of my cousins were diagnosed with celiac disease. It was just the start of the gluten-free movement, and there was a little bit of a movement, but there were only like three cookbooks that you could really get. We all love Swedish pancakes—you know, the crepe style, typical Swedish pancakes—so I told them, I'm going to make you mix that's gluten-free, and it's going to be just like the regular ones. So I spent a lot of days and nights trying to mix all with all these different flours to get the perfect one. And to this day, it's my favorite Swedish pancake. Even when I when I can have regular, I prefer that.
That's how the mixes started. I was like, Oh, maybe I should make a business out of this. So, I started a business called Scandelicious, where I was going to sell the mixes. I had the pancakes, and I was like, Oh, I should make Swedish waffles, which are the really crispy, buttery sweetheart kind. So, I made a mix for that. And then I was like, I'm gonna have classic and gluten-free.
And because I always love trios, I was like, I should have something else. And when I did research, I heard about æbleskiver. Despite having grown up in Sweden, and been to Denmark so many times, I had never heard of it. Very few of my Swedish friends have ever heard of it. I think the first time I saw it was when I looked in Williams Sonoma catalog, because [they sell the pans]. And then I was like, Oh, I should make a mix for this, too. That's when I got the pan and I really got into it. That was maybe 15 years ago.
Then I had them in Solvang. I started going to Solvang because of my friend Mimi, who lives in Carpinteria. We started going there a lot because it's like the most Scandinavian we can get. We can get the Swedish chocolate, and we can get the Danish beer, and we can get all the things that we miss from home really easily. It's like going to a Swedish or Scandinavian Disneyland, kind of.
When I made the mixes, I had made these recipes where it said, you know, Take one cup of the mix and then add this in, or fill it with this. So, I was like, Maybe I should make should make a cookbook.
I actually have three cookbooks: I have the æbleskiver book, a waffle book with all waffles—Belgian, American, Swedish, all different kinds—and then all other types of pancakes aside from æbleskiver—the American, the Swedish, the crepes. I started doing the three cookbooks at the same time, and I worked on that project for a long time. I asked somebody at Williams Sonoma, Which one do you think I should do first? And they said the æbleskiver.
A lot of inspiration for the recipes in this book came from memories from my time in Norway, up in the Norwegian mountains, and then in Sweden and Denmark. I have a lot of Scandinavian flavors, like I have the typical like a recipe with red and black currants and lingonberries. And I have Californian and American recipes, like the cornbread, which is always a favorite. Everybody loves the cornbread. It obviously has Mexican influence, too, and I have it with a black bean salad, and guacamole. I do that on demonstrations a lot, because it's the foolproof one. It comes out perfectly round and everybody loves it.
Almond Æbleskiver with Warm Mixed Berry Compote
For the Warm Mixed Berry Compote
2 cups (240 g) raspberries
1 cup (240 ml) water
½ cup (100 g) sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup (120 g) blackberries
1 cup (140 g) blueberries
1 cup (140 g) strawberries, hulled and cut in half
For the Æbleskiver
1½ cups (135 g) almond flour
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter + more for the pan
1 cup (100 g) sliced almonds
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups (360 ml) milk
To Make the Compote:
In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup (120 g) of the raspberries, the water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the syrup is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Transfer the raspberries to a bowl using a slotted spoon and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch in a little water and pour the mixture into the hot liquid in the saucepan, whisking vigorously. Return the pan to the heat and continue whisking until the liquid thickens.
Turn the heat to low and gently fold in the blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cooked raspberries. Stir gently until all the berries are warm. Keep warm and set aside.
To Make the Æbleskiver:
Mix the almond flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the 3 tablespoons of melted butter and ½ cup (50 g) of the sliced almonds and stir to evenly coat the almonds. Set aside. In another small bowl, lightly mix the eggs and milk with a fork and pour the mixture over the flour mixture. Stir quickly until just combined.
Gently fold in the buttered almond slices and try not to stir the batter again after this.
Heat the æbleskiver pan over low to medium heat with about ½ teaspoon of butter in each cavity. Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, fill each cavity almost to the top.
Cook until a crust forms on the batter. Using a thin wooden skewer, turn the ½ æbleskiver 90°, letting the batter spill over. Once a skin has formed, the æbleskiver will turn easily. Turn again in a different direction and then a last time to close up the sphere. Spin the æbleskiver around until evenly golden brown and cooked all the way through.
To Serve:
Place the æbleskiver close together on a serving platter, top with the compote, and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup (50 g) of sliced almonds.
Photos: Pim Pauline Overgaard (book photos courtesy of The Collective Book Studio)