🍢 SNACK
Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes)
Thick, soft buttermilk griddle cakes raised with baking soda and hartshorn salt, spread with butter and sugar or brown cheese and folded in half, the snack of the West Norway ferries.
Norwegian · easy · serves 10
prep 15 min · cook 30 min · plus 20 min hands-off time
~187 cal · 5g protein · 30g carbs · 5g fat · 1g fiber · 10g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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A svele, also called a lapp, is a thick, sweet griddle cake made from a sour milk batter, and in western Norway it is the thing to eat between meals with a cup of coffee. It is spread with butter and sugar, or with slices of brunost, the caramel-coloured brown cheese, and folded in half into a half moon.
Sveler are above all a ferry food. On the car ferries that cross the fjords of Møre og Romsdal and the rest of the west coast, a warm svele from the ferry kiosk is part of the crossing, and Norwegians travelling the coast road look out for them.
The batter is plain: eggs and sugar whisked together, kulturmelk (Norwegian cultured buttermilk), flour and melted butter, raised with baking soda and, traditionally, hjortetakksalt, hartshorn salt, which gives sveler their typical light texture and faint tang. The batter is ladled onto a hot griddle, and each cake is turned once when the top is full of bubbles.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
- 2 eggs
- 75 g sugar
- 400 ml kulturmelk or buttermilk
- 270 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp hjortetakksalt (hartshorn salt, baker’s ammonia), or use 1 tsp baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 40 g butter, melted, plus a little for the pan
- to taste soft butter and sugar, or sliced brunost (brown cheese), to serve
Instructions
- 1Whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then whisk in the kulturmelk.
- 2Mix the flour, baking soda, hartshorn salt and salt, sift them into the bowl and stir until smooth. Stir in the melted butter. Leave the batter to rest for 20 minutes.✎ Chef’s noteHartshorn salt smells of ammonia in the batter; the smell cooks off completely on the griddle.
- 3Heat a griddle or large frying pan over medium heat and brush it with a little butter. Pour on a small ladle of batter per cake, about 12 to 15 cm across.
- 4Cook for about 2 minutes, until the top is covered in bubbles and the underside is golden, then turn and cook about 1 minute more. Keep the cooked cakes under a clean cloth while you make the rest.✎ Chef’s noteIf the outside browns before the bubbles appear, turn the heat down a little.
- 5Serve warm, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar or topped with brown cheese, and folded in half.
West Norwegian tradition, sold on the fjord ferries.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vestland (Bergen). The everyday dish is raspeballer, dense potato balls bound with flour and simmered in salted broth, eaten with salt meat and a sweet swede mash. In Bergen they belong to Thursday, a habit left over from the days when shops stayed open late and restaurants fed the shoppers cheaply.
🗺️
Norway. Norway's cuisine is shaped by cold seas and long winters, salmon, cod, and shrimp alongside preserved fish, brown cheese, and hearty root vegetables. Fresh seafood and a tradition of preserving define the Nordic coast.
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Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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FårikålNorway's national dish: lamb and cabbage layered with whole peppercorns and simmered until tender.
Norwegian Vafler (Heart Waffles)Soft, cardamom-scented waffles cooked in a heart-shaped iron, served warm with brown cheese, jam, or sour cream.
FiskekakerLight pan-fried fish cakes bound with milk and potato starch, a Norwegian everyday staple served with vegetables.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Griddle or flat pan, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes)?
Thick, soft buttermilk griddle cakes raised with baking soda and hartshorn salt, spread with butter and sugar or brown cheese and folded in half, the snack of the West Norway ferries.
Where does Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) come from?
Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) is a Norwegian dish from Vestland (Bergen), Norway.
Can Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Svele (Norwegian Ferry Pancakes) take to make?
About 1 h 5 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 30 minutes cooking, plus 20 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 10.
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