jam-filled oat bran pancakes

It was Christmas morning and I had no special plans for breakfast, but the small jars of jam with a few teaspoons leftover from the Linzer cookies stared right back at me when I opened the fridge.  Looking like they could use a trip through the dishwasher, I thought of consolidating their contents and rebranding them as a mixed-fruit jam.  Not entirely sold on that idea, I also thought cinnamon-like rolls, or muffins or a quick breads.  All of which involved way more work than I was ready for at that time of the morning.

Putting off the task of tackling the jams for a later time, I began to pull out some eggs and buttermilk to make a breakfast of pancakes.  My signature oat bran pancakes whose recipe lay languishing in the drafts folder of my old blog, waiting for pictures.  Made so often that I have a large Ball jar of this mix in my pantry at all times.   And just as I was mixing the batter, I remembered the Danish pancakes on a friend’s Instagram feed and right there, these jams found a new purpose.  The skillet was put away and the special pancake pan brought out.

This pancake pan serves a dual purpose in my kitchen because I also use it to make the traditional south Indian dish called ponganalu/appam.  Easily available online and in many stores, I have two of them in cast-iron – one actually bought at a local CVS pharmacy many years ago!

The pancakes are pretty simple to make.  You mix the batter, pour, turn a few times and dust with some powdered sugar.  That’s it.  You can fill it with all kinds of fillings …even chocolate and nutella.  For today, it was the jam.  It requires a few turns if want it to be perfectly spherical but even a single flip is enough to give you very pretty looking pancakes!

This is not a traditional Aebleskiver batter but works perfectly well.  Pretty healthy with both oat bran and some oat flour and light on oil/butter.  Some recipes call for separating the eggs and whipping up the whites before mixing it in.  I added the whole eggs and still ended up with light and airy pancake balls.

Also, even though the jams were low in sugar to start with, I simply dusted these very lightly with powdered sugar and they were wonderful as is.

I was reading about them earlier today and learned that these are usually served around Christmas in Denmark.  And so unknowingly, I was following a Danish tradition for Christmas – even if I served it with some coffee instead of the traditional mulled wine called Glögg 🙂

Since we are still in holiday season, I think these would be a wonderful (and healthy) option for a holiday breakfast or brunch!

Jam-Filled Oat Bran Pancakes

Printable Recipe