Now, before I get your hopes up of eating delicious filled pancake balls… note that you really can’t make them with out the special pan. I received this “special pan” from a relative at Christmas time. You can buy one for about $35 at Bed Bath & Beyond, mine came from William & Sonoma, but I think you could probably find one for less buy just searching amazon. (I found one for only $20.).
Also note, this is kind of time consuming. It took me over an hour to make about 40 of them. That’s what the recipe makes, is 40 of these delicious morsels. Now, don’t let that discourage you. It is perfect for a special breakfast (Valentine’s day?) or for just a beautiful Saturday morning when your husband and the neighbor are out digging the back yard into oblivion. You don’t really need an occasion.
First things first, post up the recipe. I think I read it twelve times because honestly… I’ve never whipped up egg whites before. I clearly didn’t read the directions well enough though, because I forgot to add the butter… shhhh. I added it in at the end and it didn’t seem to make a difference. We’ll just pretend that never happened.
As for ingredients, you will need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
4 tblsp butter, melted (plus some for greasing the pan)
fillings: I used nutella, and Reese’s chips…
A note on fillings: you can use what ever you want. Jams, fruit, and (supposedly) cheese. But, my husband and I each picked one filling, and ran with it. Do what ever sounds good to you. You’ll see by the amount of sugar, that it’s not a sweet batter (1 tablespoon of sugar!?) but it can go either way.
First: Add your dry ingredients together. The flour, baking powder, salt and sugar…. mix it up. We’re all friends here!
Separate your eggs. A note of egg separating: I usually use my hands. Yup. I think it’s the easiest way to do it. Sadly that does not bode well for taking a picture. If you do get yolk in your whites… just take a spoon and kind of pick it out. It’ll be fine.
You’ll want two bowls, since you will need both the whites and the yolks. Make sure your bowls are big enough to accommodate future ingredients.
Add the two cups of milk and four tablespoons melted butter to your eggs yolks and WHISK!
Pour yolk/milk mixture into your dry ingredients a bit at a time, then stirring until you’ve added all of it. The batter is going to be kind of lumpy (my least favorite thing ever). Just go with it. You’re not done yet!
Whisk them egg whites. The instructions say “Use an electric mixer with a whisk attachment.” I happen to have one of those… so I did just that. For 3 minutes. If you don’t have one of these handy dandy things… just use what ever you would regularly use to whisk egg whites.
Whisk until they are stiff, but stop before they start to form peaks.
Add the whisked up egg-whites in two parts, gently mixing it into the batter. I take “in two parts” to mean add half of it, mix, add the second half, mix. Then the batter should look kind of frothy, but still a bit lumpy. Sad.
Lumpy, frothy batter.
Now, to the cooking portion. The pan needs to be on the stove, on medium heat. Mine is measured in simple numbers, 1 -9 and I had it set on 4. After your pan has been heated, you will want to put a little bit of butter in each “well” of the pan. That way your ebelskivers won’t stick.
Add about one tablespoon of batter to each well. Then let it sit for a minute. If you add the filling too soon then it will just sink to the bottom and burn and you’ll have to clean the pan before your next attempt and it’ll be a big pain. So just wait.
Add your filling. About a teaspoon, if it is something measurable. I didn’t measure my filling. I just scooped up a bunch, and then used another spoon to section the chunks into the little pancakes. Very technical, I know.
Also, don’t get the filling on the pan. Messy. I know, my pan looks awful, I have a hard time keeping batter where it is supposed to be. You should’ve seen the stove top when I was finished. There is no picture of that mess.
I love Nutella. A lot. More than any grown woman should ever love Nutella. Nutella does not love me. It’s a one way street.
I had some Reese’s chips from a previous baking endeavor, so this was B-man’s choice of filling. I did make some with both Nutella, and the peanut butter chips, but none to show of.
And then add another tablespoon of batter to the top. (umm… I didn’t do this either. I just added enough to cover the filling, and fill the well. If you add too much, and it is above the well, it will be a pain in the buttocks to flip over. You are forewarned.
This next step is the bane of my existence, and may or may not have made me cry.
After your ebelskivers have been cooking for 3-5 minutes you will see little bubbles come up. I watched a video on this, and the lady made it look easy. LIES! She used two wooden skewers. I used a chopstick and a spoon. Pretty much you just have to flip them over. I pushed the little bowl of batter down on one side, then scooped it over with the spoon. Really… you just kind of have to figure it out. But don’t pick it up with the spoon and try to flip it (that’s how my pan got so messy), and don’t do it too early (another reason it was messy.) Any way, you should end up with the beautiful little Danish breakfast treats.
After you flip them, let them cook for another minute or two so that the other side can brown a little as well.
After trying to flip my ebelskivers… this was how I felt. It was not my best moment. Thankfully I had the joy of knowing I had gotten flour on my husband’s sweatshirt instead of mine. I’m trying to think positive.
Thankfully these little buggers are delicious, and make up for a messy stove, a messy pan, a floured sweatshirt, lots of dishes and a deflated ego.
And look! It’s snowing in Ebelskiver-land!
