Ebelskivers..

..what??

For those of you unfamiliar with the deliciousness that are ebelskivers let me enlighten you :)

Order up :)

Ebelskivers are a round Danish pancake that are solid like a pancake but fluffy inside like a popover.  My kids LOVE them.

But the recipe is a bit difficult and time consuming, something I normally save for special occasions.  But Son 2 asked me to cook them for breakfast, so I had only one option, wake up an hour early and make them.

If you want to try ebelskivers but aren't into making them yourself, head up to Solvang, CA and order them there.

Here is the recipe I use:

Ebelskivers
Makes 28 pancakes

Ingredients
4 eggs, seperated
1 T sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups cake flour
2 scant cups milk
shortening

Equipment
2 mixing bowls
ebelskiver pan
skewer

1. Beat the egg yolks.  Add the sugar, salt and milk to the egg yolks and mix gently.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the egg mixture, mixing gently.
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold into batter.  It will be lumpy.
4. Place a small amount of shortening in each cup of the heated pan and fill with batter.
5. Cook over medium heat until bubbly
6. Turn pancake carefully with a skewer and finish cooking
7. Serve with butter, powdered sugar, jelly or syrup.

Serves 4-6 people

Separating the eggs

I should tell you that I usually make a double batch of ebelskivers whenever I happen to cook them.  They hold well in the frig and they are so much work, I might as well get 2 breakfasts out of them.

Egg yolks only

Once the eggs are separated I worked with the yolks first.  Since I don't have two mixing bowls for my mixer I just used a hand whisk to mix the yolks, salt, sugar and milk.

Liquids are ready for the flour

The recipe calls for cake flour, you can find it at most grocery stores.  Cake flour is designed to make light and fluffy pastries.  You can use all purpose flour for this recipe but the texture of the pancakes will not be as good.  Honestly if you are going to go to all the work to make ebelskivers, you may as well buy some cake flour while you are at it.

Ready for sifting

Once the flour is whisked into the egg yolk mixture I start beating my egg whites.

Whisking in the flour

While you are beating the egg whites keep your eye on them, we want stiff peaks.

Let's beat some egg whites

Once your eggs hit the stiff peak stage you will be able to lift your mixer out of the bowl and the egg whites will stand up on their own.

Stiff peaks

The next step is to gently fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.  The batter will be lumpy.  Make sure that you don't over mix and collapse your egg whites.

Ready to fold in the egg whites

While I fold in the egg whites I also start my pan heating up.  My ebelskiver pan is a cast iron one that I've spent many years seasoning.  This baby doesn't get washed, it just gets wiped down when I'm done with it.

Heating up the ebelskiver pan

Once the pan is hot, drop a small bit of shortening into each cup and spread it around the cup with a heat safe pastry brush.  I grease the cups every time I add raw batter.  You can also grease the top of the pan so any extra batter won't stick.

I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter into the cups.  I fill the cups up pretty full since I want a solid ball pancake with no gaps in it.  Patience is key here.

Ready to turn

Now, for the trickiest part of making ebelskivers.  Turning them.  I use a long skewer and as soon as the side of the pancake is set and browned a bit, I stick the skewer into the pancake and rotate the pancake.

Does that make sense?

Turning the pancakes

You want to get the pancake turned over so the uncooked batter runs into the cup and you wind up with a round pancake.  There is a learning curve here with timing, your first pan or two might look ugly but they should still taste good.

Keep on turning

I keep rotating the pancake until it is nicely browned and my skewer comes out of the pancake fairly clean. 

Mmmm, ready to eat

Since I made a double batch, I have this nice plate of ebelskivers that I'm going to keep in the fridge that the kids can snack on or have for breakfast later in the week.

Left overs

If you are trying to decide whether to make 1 or 2 batches keep in mind that my kids eat 7 pancakes each.  Error on the side of more :)

Enjoy!