Ebelskiver Saturdays: Orange-Blueberry Ebelskivers with Grilled Peaches

Ebelskiver Saturdays are back and better than ever! Due to those past few busy weekends, the ebelskivers were put on hold, but this weekend I went all out (and by ‘all out’ I mean healthy and delicious.) I don’t know about you, but I have found that my healthy habits tend to fall by the wayside once Friday night rolls around. Last weekend’s poor choices turned into a renewed focus and energy towards making every day a ‘good day’, and I wasn’t going to go into this weekend any other way. I eliminated all white sugar from this batter, subbed half the milk with orange juice, used fresh blueberries as the filling, and had grilled peaches on the side (I also use Smart Balance with Olive Oil instead of butter… and cut that down about 1/2tbsp from the original recipe). It was great–wholesome, filling, and a nice reminder to make the rest of the weekend just as healthy.

Prep bowls--one way to feel like you know what you're doing.

Fresh.

Easy grilling on a chilly Saturday morning.

Healthy.

As always, you can find the batter recipe here. I wish I could take full credit for the batter, but it’s just not so. I’ve lightened theirs a little, but not changed it completely. However, I did take the time to add up the nutrition info! Hooray!

Orange-Blueberry Ebelskivers with Grilled Peaches Nutrition Info (serving 1):
300 cals, 11.5g of fat, 38g carbs, 14.5g sugar, 8g fiber, 4.5g protein

Ebelskiver Saturdays: Apple-Cinnamon

My desire to master the ebelskiver has not subsided, so bright and early yesterday morning, I got out of bed to get busy (and make a royal mess of my kitchen). It was my first attempt at making my own filling, but as it turns out, that is pretty easy. I worked straight from my ebelskivers cook book (you can find it here), except I subbed the granny smith apples for fuji, eliminated a bit of sugar and used more brown sugar than white, and as always, subbed whole wheat flour for white.

So far, I think these are the crowd favorite (and by crowd, I mean Tex and myself). There was a good amount of filling left over after the batter was all used up, so the filling became topping; which only added to the decadence and fabulosity of it all. I also mastered that daunting ebelskiver flip! I didn’t think it was going to happen, things were looking too soupy for anything pretty to happen, but lo and behold, it was tens across the board and I’ll be submitting my application to the ebelskiver Olympics soon enough.

8am humor.

Filling-to-be.

Butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon--what's not to love?

Yolk.

Filling/topping.

Filled.

Check out that flip, ladies and gentelmen!

Breakfast perfected.

On a side note, if I haven’t mentioned this before, I recently acquired some prep bowls and am in love with them. I love all things tiny, but these are super-functional (and pretty! Thanks to a Macy’s gift card and a visit to the Martha Stewart section.). Now I can cook/bake/create without using every single cereal bowl we own. They also came with lids, genius.

Ebelskiver Saturdays: Getting (Coco)Nutty

This morning started bright and early with another ebelskiver attempt. I really liked the blackberry jam-filled that I made last week, but wanted to try something new. The picture of lightly toasted coconut-laced ebelskivers caught my eye and I got to work. This batter had an additional egg white, making the dough fabulously fluffy (almost too fluffy, but I’ll get to that later). They turned out great and not much unlike the picture.

Extra fluffy batter.

The filling.

This is why it may have been too fluffy-- it made it hard for all the layers to come together.

One day I'll get it right on the first flip.

An additional turn or two made them nice and brown.

Too early in the morning for plate presentation. More of an ebeliskiver pile, if you will.

Let’s hope this trend of bounding out of bed on Saturdays to whip up a homemade breakfast continues… so far we’re two for two. We shall see.

 

Blackberry Jam-filled Whole Wheat Ebelskivers (or, ‘That’s one heck of a way to start a Saturday’)

Two posts this week? Watch out, she’s on a roll (and let’s hope she keeps this up).

For Christmas Tex received a wonderful new kitchen tool and cookbook to go along with it from his super fabulous sister. I immediately decided that I would be the one to break it in this weekend and rationalized my present theft with the fact that he gets a unique and homemade breakfast without lifting a finger. (Kinda like getting a personal chef and a present, no?)

Rationalizations aside, I popped out of bed this morning to give homemade ebelskivers a go. Truth be told, the moments leading up to the cooking process were less than ideal (spoiled creamer in my freshly brewed coffee; broken vase in back of the really tall cabinet; egg white separating failure in the bowl of my mixer, which meant I had to promptly wash the darn thing so I could continue my ebelskivering), thus making me wonder if taking on an unfamiliar cooking style was such a good idea when I wasn’t awake as I clearly needed to be. Nevertheless, I remade my coffee and shook those doubts right out of my unwashed head and decided to power on and own this recipe to the best of my ability.

The cookbook that Dede included with our ebelskiver pan and wooden tools, Ebelskivers-Filled Pancakes and Other Mouthwatering Miniatures, is filled with recipes both savory and sweet as well as heavenly photographs for each that look good enough to eat themselves. The batter is pretty straightforward, but pretty specific, yet turned out well. For my first attempt, I figured simpler was better, so I made the Jelly Donut Ebelskivers, with only a few minor tweaks. I subbed the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, subbed 1% milk for whole, lightened the butter,  and left out a bit of sugar. I also sprinkled the tops with powdered sugar in lieu of superfine sugar because it’s what we had.

I did learn a thing or two that will hopefully make my next ebelskiver attempt a snap (Being careful not to overfill the wells, letting them cook just a little longer, and remembering which direction I started with…), well, fingers crossed anyway.

The tools.

Dry ingredients.

Folding in the egg whites.

Getting ready (Please take note of Tex's oversized grill basting brush. It's some of the littlest things I never remember to purchase.)

Adding the filling.

Final layer.

Action shot.

Prettier next time, promise.

Everything is slightly more divine when topped with powdered sugar.

Jelly Donut Ebelskivers, modified from Ebelskivers-Filled Pancakes and Other Mouthwatering Miniatures (serves 4)

Vanilla Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar (I used 1/2 teaspoon total)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, separated

1 cup whole milk (I used 1%)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, leaving one separated to coat the pan (I used Smart Balance buttery sticks), melted and slightly cooled

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberry or grape jelly (I used blackberry jam)

3 teaspoons superfine sugar (I used a tiny sprinkle of powdered sugar)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until well blended. The batter will be lumpy.

In a clean bowl, using an electric mixture on high speed, beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold about 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then fold in the rest just until no white streaks remain. Use batter right away.

Brush the wells of the ebelskiver pan with some of the melted butter and place over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add about one tablespoon batter to each well. Working quickly, carefully spoon about 1 teaspoon of the jelly into the center of each pancake. Top each with another tablespoon of batter.

Cook until the bottoms of the pancakes are lightly browned and crisp, 3-5 minutes. Use 2 short wooden skewers to turn all the pancakes and cook until lightly browned on the second side, about 3 minutes longer.

Transfer the finished pancakes to a platter and keep warm in the oven while you make two more batches.** Sprinkle the sugar over the warm pancakes and serve right away.

**Since there were just the two of us, I cut the batter in half, making this step unnecessary.