thursday, november 26, 2015 | albertleatribune.com | Section B
thanksgiving extra
What are your favorite family
HoLiday traditionS?
Marilyn Danielsen learned how to make aebelskiver, what she describes as a “pancake ball,” from her mother-in-law. colleen harrison/albert lea tribune
Holidays are a time to come together to make traditional food, memories By colleen Harrison
colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com
The holiday season comes every year, and with it family and food. Especially food. For Anita Sande, food has been a family holiday tradition since she was a child. Sande and her husband, Dick Sande, both come from Norwegian families that grew up with the tradition of making lefse each holiday season. Sande grew up watching her mother, Hazel Reyerson, make lefse using a cream and butter-based recipe, but it would be Sande’s motherin-law, Opal Sande, that would first teach her how to make lefse. Opal’s recipe calls for flour and Crisco oil, which Sande said is an easier recipe to make, in her opinion. Sande said lefse was a mainstay in Norway. It used to be made primarily with flour during a countrywide potato famine. It was then baked until it had a similar consistency to a cracker, and was meant to last all winter. When eaten, the lefse would be dipped in water and wrapped in a damp cloth until it was soft enough to eat. Now, lefse is made from potatoes and is more similar to a tortilla than a cracker. For Sande, the process of making lefse begins with boiling about 10 pounds of potatoes, which are then riced. The riced potatoes are then mixed with Crisco oil, sugar, salt and flour before being rolled into balls the size of a walnut. The lefse mix is then rolled out onto a lefse board, before being flipped onto a griddle using a stick. The stick is then used to flip the lefse on the griddle until it’s done. Sande then folds the lefse between seran wrap and a terry cloth so that it cools while staying moist. Sande has been making lefse for over 20 years, and it’s something that has become a family pastime with her and her grandchildren. Her granddaughters Holly Jackson, 26, and Noelle Hagen, 22, make lefse with Sande each year as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach. The girls each learned how to make lefse with their grandma when they were about 12 or 13. Hagen loves the tradition, and said she loves lefse. “I get really sentimental about traditions and I really like to do stuff with my grandma,” she said. “It can be a lot of work, but it’s worth it. … I know for sure my grandma makes the best lefse.” For the three women to make 10
balls.” She said it’s traditionally cooked with apples inside of it, but that she has taken the apples out of her recipe over the years as she thinks it takes too long to cook. Danielsen cooks for an aebelskiver supper each spring at Ascension Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, and for that dinner she said the aebelskiver is served with applesauce. Danielsen is Slovakian on her side of the family, and that comes with its own family traditions as well. For Christmas, her family makes a Christmas soup they call yuka gravy, which is made up of pork, mushrooms and onions in a gravy made with sauerkraut juice, served over bread. Her family also makes bobalky, a bread that’s dipped in poppy seeds and honey. Danielsen said the yuka gravy and bobalky aren’t family favorites among her younger relatives, so those foods are usually made when Anita Sande uses a number of tools to make lefse each year, including a ricer for potatoes, a griddle, a lefse Danielsen and her cousins get together. stick and a lefse board that Sande’s husband, Dick, made for her. When Danielsen’s family has aebelskiver, she said they usupounds-worth of potatoes into lefse, ally serve it with maple syrup and it usually takes about four hours. butter. Other times, the family They said they’ve worked out an gets together to make medisterassembly line-style of cooking that pølse, another Danish tradition has worked out over the years. of spicy pork sausage that they Hagen said there have been serve with aebelskiver. Medistersome cooking disasters as she pølse is a major family favorite, has learned from her grandma, according to Danielsen. but that cooking one of her favor“The kids love it,” she said. “Evite foods has always been a great erybody’s got a job to do.” experience. At one family gathering, Dan“Pumpkin pie is great, decoratielsen said the family members’ ed Christmas cookies are great, ages ranged from an infant to somebut lefse’s better,” she said. “Even one in their 80s who was participatwhen I’m full, there’s always room Lefse is thin and similar to a tortilla, but is typically made with potatoes. ing in the cooking, which includes for lefse.” grinding and stuffing sausage. “It’s tradition,” she said. “It’s Lefse always a fun family thing to do.” 3 cups riced potatoes 2 tablespoons crisco oil 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup flour
Boil potatoes until a fork can be stuck into them. Rice potatoes. Mix with oil, sugar, salt and flour. Let cool. Roll into walnut-sized balls, using flour as need to roll. Roll out onto lefse board using rolling pin, then use lefse stick to flip onto hot griddle. Flip with the stick once the one side starts to bubble.
‘Always a fun family thing’
Danielsen said aebelskiver usually has pieces of apple cooked inside of it, but she has done away with adding apples to her recipe over the Marilyn Danielsen first learned years as it takes too long to cook. how to make aebelskiver from her husband’s side of the family. Her the recipe Danielsen uses is from Danielsen described aebelhusband, Bill, is full Danish, and Bill’s grandmother. skiver as being like “pancake
Buttermilk aebelskiver
3 eggs, beaten separately 2 cups buttermilk 2 cups flour 3 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat egg yolks well. Add sugar, salt and buttermilk. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda. Fold in egg whites that have been beaten. The dough can be mixed an hour before using. Pour batter into aebelskiver pan, filling each opening about three-quarters of the way full. Use a skewer to flip. When skewer can be stuck into aebelskiver and removed clean, the batter is cooked all the way through.