Ebelskivers

On Christmas Day I was really brave and made two breakfast dishes that I've never made before. I'm fearless like that in the kitchen. Have directions? Have the proper utensils? Bring it on! I can conquer (almost) anything in the kitchen.

One of the dishes I made were ebelskivers. According to Wikipedia:

Æbleskiver (/ˈeɪ.bləˌskiː.vɜr/; Danish meaning apple slices [singular: æbleskive]) are traditional Danish pancakes in a distinctive shape of a sphere. Somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes crossed with a popover, æbleskiver are solid like a pancake but light and fluffy like a popover. The English language spelling is usually aebleskiver or ebelskiver.

I learned about these accidentally one day while I was shopping on Zulily and saw an ebelskiver pan, which is necessary to make them. They were fairly simple and easy to make, especially since I used the ebelskiver mix from Williams Sonoma - they make cooking gourmet so easy! Here's the recipe I followed from the can of mix:

You will need:

1 1/4 C ebelskiver mix

2 eggs, separated

1 C milk

2 Tbsp butter, melted, plus more for cooking

1/2 C jam, chocolate hazelnut spread, or cooked fruit for filling 

Maple syrup, powdered sugar, or whipped cream for serving

And the ebelskiver pan, of course. 

The recipe made three full sets of 7. 

Put the pancake mix in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, milk, and butter. Whisk the egg yolk mix into the pancake mix until well combined. 

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form (1-2 minutes). Fold the whites into the batter. 

Put 1/4 tsp butter into each well, turn heat to medium until the butter starts to bubble. 

Pour 1 Tbsp of batter into each well. Then, pour 1 tsp of jam, fruit filling, or chocolate hazelnut spread in the center of each pancake. Top with 1 Tbsp of batter. It will look like this:

At this point I really had my doubts about this whole thing. They look pretty flat, but don't worry, they will round out. 

Cook them about 4 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Use two wooden skewers to turn the pancakes over. I've seen other utensils used, but I think the skewers are easiest. Tongs would probably not work very well. And there's an art to turning them over; an art I haven't mastered, yet. 

They will look something like this.

Cook until golden brown, then remove them from the pan and place them on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter until it's all used up! Top them with powdered sugar or maple syrup. Or if you're my Mom, use both. Or try some whipped cream, I think that would be yummy, too. 

I will fill you in on the breakfast casserole (the other new dish I tried) later.