When I was a child, my mother made breakfast for us every morning. We could have eggs, French toast, grits, cornmeal “mush,” bacon, or pancakes, including my favorite: “crepes suzette,” which was a stack of three pancakes with jelly and powdered sugar. When I went away to college, I gradually stopped eating elaborate breakfasts regularly, choosing instead to pick up a pastry and coffee at local bakeries. These days I rarely eat breakfast during the week, but on weekends I sometimes break out the waffle iron, and I make a mean French omelette.
A few years ago, though, when Toast opened on Laurel Street, I was exposed to an entirely new dish for which I now and again indulge a craving: Aebelskivers.
In its native Denmark, Aebelskivers (Æbleskivers, which I cannot manage to pronounce correctly – the closest I get is “mook-EE-blay-lok”) are eaten as a dessert. They’re essentially light, spherical pancakes, and at Toast they’re served with whipped cream and a choice of lemon curd, maple syrup, jam, caramel, chocolate or Nutella. I’m sure all of those options are excellent, but I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never gotten past the lemon curd.
I am addicted. I mean, I could quit any time I want, but I’ve totally got it under control. The list of foods for which I yearn as much as Aebelskivers is fairly long – but I’m not a huge dessert person, so the list of sweets is a bit shorter. Off the top of my head there’s the zeppole (little fried yeast-donuts) that Domenica used to serve with a chocolate sauce for dipping; cream puffs filled with real pastry cream; blackberry pie; gelato (particularly the amarena cherry at Piccola on Freret street); the cornmeal-lemon-almond cake my wife sometimes makes for me; and the almond crescent from Brocato’s are definitely on that list.
I could go on, which just goes to show that my list of favorite desserts is not quite as short as I’d thought. I’m interested to know you pine for in terms of sweets; if you would be so kind to leave a comment, I’d appreciate it.
