Ebelskivers

Many years ago, when our children were little, we made a road trip to southern California and Disneyland.  Along the way, we stopped at the little Danish town of Solvang.  It's full of quaint gift shops, art galleries, and bakeries. Most notable of the baked goods was ebelskivers, a round Danish pancake.  We tried some and were hooked!  Around the same time, a restaurant opened in our area that served a breakfast called "1-2-3"; 3 ebelskivers, 2 slices of bacon and 1 egg.  We would go there often, mostly to get the ebelskivers. My family kept telling me I should learn how to make them.  At the time, finding an ebelskiver pan was not easy (no Amazon back then!) I finally found a cast-iron one at a small cookware store.  The owner of the store gave me a recipe for them, which was nice because the recipes were hard to find, too! Well, I discovered that ebelskivers are very easy to make and it's become a family-favorite breakfast ever since!

Due to the sour cream, this recipe produces a very rich and tender batter.  We love them best dusted with powdered sugar and served with homemade strawberry jam to dip them in.  I have an ebelskiver cookbook full of various recipes for sweet and savory ebleskivers, as well as ebelskivers filled with apple filling and other fruit mixtures.  I keep saying I'm going to try something different, but each time I pull out my pans I find myself making our favorite.

Recently my Hubbers and I had a long weekend get-away and found ourselves in Solvang one afternoon.  We ordered a batch of ebelskivers and were so disappointed.  Theirs were drenched in a berry syrup and the ebelskivers were very grainy.  They were definitely not as good as we remembered them to be (maybe another bakery would have been different?) Ever since then I've been craving them and finally got around to making them one day for breakfast.  My Hubbers and granddaughter were quite happy! I shared with my next-door neighbors, much to their delight.  The ebelskivers are such a wonderful morning treat!

An ebelskiver pan has hemispherical indentations for the dough to cook in. Once turned, you have a round pancake! My drag racing friends can appreciate the irony of me baking with a "hemi" pan!

Ebelskivers

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups sour cream

Sift dry ingredients into bowl, add eggs and sour cream and mix until smooth (batter will be thick).

Brush ebelskiver mold indentations with melted butter, then fill half-full with batter. When light brown turn with skewer or fork and brown other side. Use rather low heat so inside of ebelskiver will be done, use a toothpick or skewer to check for doneness.

Serve with jam or syrup.