Ebelskiver with Apple compote





We got a takoyaki pan as a wedding present.

If you've never tried takoyaki, you are missing out. Basically, they are Japanese octopus pancake balls topped with mayonaise and sauce and fish flakes and served mouth searingly hot. They are basically the best thing to order at an izakaya, especially at 2am.

Unfortunately, I have yet to make real takoyaki. It still seems intimidating and I wanted to try out my technique with cheaper ingredients.

Ebelskiver, or Aebleskiver, is a danish dessert served during the holidays. They are round pancakes served with powdered sugar and jam. They can have filling in them or not. Either way they are delicious.

The wells of a normal Aebleskive pan are much larger than a takoyaki pan. Aebleskives are usually an inch and a half to two inches in diameter while takoyaki are about 1 inch in diameter and perfectly bite sized. They cook very quickly, so the key to takoyaki is speed. I use chopsticks to turn mine but they sell tools for that as well.

We made ours for breakfast with apple compote to use up some extra apples. Just sauteed until tender with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and dark rum. For the aebleskiver, I used the recipe provided by the blog Sweet, Sour, Savory. We divided this recipe by 4 to have breakfast for 2 people, but half would also have been appropriate for plenty of snack leftovers.

Aebleskiver
Ingredients
  • 250 grams all purpose flour
  • 125 grams salted, melted butter
  • 375 mL milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom (optional. I put less because I don't really like the flavor)
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • Powdered sugar, lingonberry jam, etc for serving
Directions
  1. Separate the eggs and beat the whites to stiff peaks. Set aside.
  2. Mix flour, cardamom, baking powder salt. Mix milk with egg yolks, lemon zest, and melted butter. 
  3. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Fold in egg whites.
  4. Heat the pan over medium heat and spray well with cooking spray. Pour batter into wells until 3/4 full. Begin turning the balls as soon as the edges start to bubble (for an aebleskiver pan) or immediately for a takoyaki pan. If desired, you can fill the insides with fruit, chocolate chips, etc just before turning.
  5. Keep turning the balls until browned on all sides and rounded. This will take practice. 
  6. Eat immediately with powdered sugar and desired topping.







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