Æbleskiver og Ris á l'amande

Now it is time to tell you about two danish Christmas desserts.

Æbleskiver is a cross between pancakes and doughnuts. So of course it goes without saying, that I like them very much :) They are fried in a special pan that you can see in the picture, with little round dents that you pour dough into. Apparently you flip each one with knitting needles when it's ready, but the one time Morten and I tried, we failed miserably.

To eat the æbleskiver, traditionally you would dip each one in powdered sugar and/or rasberry jam before taking a bite. MMMMMM!!

I should also tell you about ris á l'amande. It's a french name but is actually a traditional Christmas dessert in Scandanavia. It is rice pudding with whipped cream and chopped almonds, and usually you cover it with cherries and sauce.

Almost every family in Denmark will have ris á l'amande on December 24th. There is a special game associated with ris á l'amande. There are chopped almonds throughout it, and some of the pieces can get quite large, but there will be only one whole (peeled) almond somewhere in the bowl of pudding. So on Christmas eve the family will have to finish the entire bowl of ris á l'amande until someone has "found" the whole almond. Some people will conceal the fact that they have found it (i.e. hiding it in their mouth as they continue to eat), just to make everyone get really stuffed, before they reveal that they have found the almond. Then the one who has found the almond gets a special gift.

I'm really looking forward to a "real" Danish Christmas this year, with Morten's family. I know a lot more of the traditions but I will wait to tell about them until I have experienced them first hand.