Happy New Year, Yummies! Since I’ve been my mom’s sous-chef for the past few weeks and had little time to do anything but follow the Boss-Lady’s orders around the kitchen, it seems fitting to share a wonderful recipe that she has passed on to me.
Actually, this recipe had a circuitous way of getting to me. It all started with my grandmother’s sister Charlotte, who was a lady who lunched, in Albequerque. She had a friend there who had this ebleskiver recipe. A Danish lady-who also lunched- and had married an Italian gentleman. Don’t ask me how this recipe passed into her hands-Farmoder? Great Great Farmoder? Perhaps having an ebleskiver recipe for a Danish woman is a bit like having a pancake recipe for an American one.
Anyway, this lady, Mickey (of all things!) Pelosso generously passed the recipe along to Charlotte, who in turn passed it to my Gran who passed it to my mom, another Charlotte who was named after the afore-mentioned Aunt, and now it is in my hot little hands and waiting to be shared with you and your Yummies.
Now, I must warn you that the “skivers” or “eeveeskeevees” require a full-on pan of their own. Mine is fun to cook eggs in as well as ebleskivers. This recipe is so much a part of our family tradition by now that I own an ebleskiver pan EVEN THOUGH we live in New York City and EVEN THOUGH owning something like an ebleskiver pan in an apartment is completely ludicrous.
Coincidentally, my kids were watching “Toot and Puddle” the other day, and the pigs were on vacay in Denmark. What else did they eat but a big plate of ebleskivers. My daughter gasped, turned to her Nona, pointed, and exclaimed, “Ebleskivers!” She seemed very proud that she had taken part in such a cosmopolitan treat.
Ebleskivers
*6 eggs, separated
*2 c. all purpose flour
*2 t. baking soda
*1 t. salt
*1 T. sugar
*2 c. buttermilk
*1 1/2 sticks butter (12 T. )
Big Person: Melt the butter and set aside.
Together: If your mini-chef is old enough, you can let them help crack and/or separate the eggs. Even if they’re tiny creatures, allow them to watch how you do it and talk about the colors and consistencies of both parts of the egg.
Measure out the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into a large bowl and whisk. Add the buttermilk and beat the mixture for a minute or so. Add the egg yolks, beating well after each addition.
Then, in a SEPARATE mixing bowl, beat the cold egg whites till stiff peaks appear-Note to Infrequent Bakers: Don’t worry! This is very evident and will look like those little cowlicks on lemon meringue pies, and your mini-chef will enjoy looking at the little snowy mountains of egg white.
Big Person will, at this point, put the ebleskiver pan onto the stove at medium heat.
Show your mini-chef how to very, very gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter till the egg whites are incorporated.
Big Person: Place a generous amount of the melted butter into each of the cups of the ebleskiver pan and then fill the cup to the top with batter.
When each ebleskiver is done on the bottom side, turn with a large fork and brown the other side. When the center of the ebleskiver is cooked, remove it from the cup and put onto a warmed plate.
Berry Compote
*1 pint of blueberries
*1 cup of cranberries
*2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced to into 1/8-inch wedges
*1/4 c. brown sugar
*a pinch of salt
Let your Yummy place all of the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pan and stir them together. Big Person will heat this over a medium-high flame until the mixture starts bubbling. Turn the heat down and, stirring occasionally, cook down the mixture till it’s thick, the consistency of warm jam.
Let cool a bit before serving with the ebleskivers, or spoon a small dollop into the center of each ebleskiver as you’re putting the batter into the pan.
06/01/2009 at 2:57 pm Permalink
I had no idea you knew about these things! I learned about them last New Years in Boston because Heidi (Jeff’s Heidi) is of Danish descent and her grandma makes these and its a major tradition in their house. Jeff and Heidi have their own pan in Beantown and Jeff took on his manly duties (apparently their family tradition is the man in the house must don the apron and cook this treat) and we stuffed our faces on New Years day. Heidi actually stuffs her ebelskivers with little pieces of fruit. Love love love.
06/01/2009 at 8:03 pm Permalink
those look amazing! Yummy
07/01/2009 at 2:24 am Permalink
These sound great, I haven’t had ebleskivers in years!
07/01/2009 at 7:03 am Permalink
Happy New Year Cate! That is such a cute story about your daughter and the toot and puddle show (didn’t know toot and puddle HAD a show – I’ve only seen the book!).
07/01/2009 at 3:26 pm Permalink
Welcome back Cate and happy new year! I love these ebleskivers and definitely will have to make them. It’s very timely because my daughter is reading the Norse myths right now so Scandinavian cuisine is in these days at our house!
07/01/2009 at 4:29 pm Permalink
These look so good! I’ve only had them once, at a friend’s house! We don’t have the correct pan, but you inspired us to make waffles this morning! thank you!! big hug!
alison
07/01/2009 at 8:29 pm Permalink
Happy New Year! What a neat treat, I don’t have room for the pan in our little apartment. But I’m planning to try the compote. It sounds great.
07/01/2009 at 8:48 pm Permalink
the compote IS good, diana, and you can substitute nearly any fruit that you want by the way. we had some extras left over from a crumble i made, so i used the apple and the berries. you can definitely throw in anything you would like to, and it pretty much turns out to taste fantastic.
happy new year to you!