My bedstemor (Danish for grandmother, but she was actually my great-grandmother) used to make these tynde pandekager (Danish rolled pancakes) for us on special occasions. She topped them with her favorite freezer jam (Week’s) and eating them always made the morning feel like a holiday, which is apt since these are a traditional breakfast for Christmas.

Now that I’m in charge of the adulting, I know they’re simple to make as something simpler than pie, so it was kind of a cheat on her part. But kids are easy to fool, amiright?

As a kid myself, I liked them heaped with butter and cinnamon sugar and rolled tightly into a tube. Now that I’m a mature adult with a more sophisticated pallet, I like them heaped with butter, cinnamon sugar AND cardamom rolled into a tube. I’ve really grown like that.

You know they’re good because my bedstemor wrote “very good” next to the recipe and she had high standards. By the time I knew her, her intense cooking days were long behind her, but she had a few classic recipes that she kept in rotation because they were too tasty to go without.

I am the one who wrote “crepe” next to the recipe because I was just learning to cook and I had inherited my bedstemor’s recipes. I didn’t know what the hell a Danish rolled pancake was (despite the fact that that’s what I’d been eating my whole life), but I knew I liked crepes.

This recipe is my husband’s favorite way to eat tynde pandekager. It involves butter, cardamom whipped cream and his quick strawberry jam.

Danish Rolled Pancake Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 TB sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom (not optional)
• Whipped cream plus 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• Quick jam
• Butter
• Powered sugar (optional)

Steps:

Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Add eggs and milk. Stir until completely combined.

Whip the cream and cardamom together until it forms stiff peaks.

Heat a skillet with butter on medium heat until the butter is melted. Pour in enough batter that it thinly covers the entire base of the skillet. Cook for a few minutes until the pancake releases from the metal of the pan. If you’re not challenged in the flipping department, like I am, you can give the pan a toss to flip these over. If not, use a spatula like the rest of us to turn it and cook on the other side until it releases and is just turning brown.

Repeat. You’ll need to add a little butter to the pan before each pancake, otherwise they’ll stick.

Top each pancake with cream, homemade quick jam, and butter. If you have a sweet tooth, add some powdered sugar, too.

Fun fact! I don’t believe in making food just for photographs. I take pictures of the food I am about to eat. It’s too wasteful, in my eyes, to try and make things look perfect if it renders it inedible. So I sprinkled these with powdered sugar to make them look a little prettier (ok, and because I like the taste).

After we were done taking pictures, I forked into my pancake, only to find that I’d grabbed the jar for corn starch, not powdered sugar. YUM! I can now tell you that I would definitely not recommend Danish rolled pancakes topped with corn starch. I’m sure you’ll appreciate my leg work on the matter.