stuart james beall

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour — 1+1/8 Cup

Salt — 1/4 teaspoon

Baking Soda — 1/2 teaspoon

Vanilla Extract — 1 Tablespoon

Cultured Buttermilk — 1 Cup

Chicken Eggs — 3

Granulated Sugar — 1 Tablespoon

Salted Butter — 1 bar

Directions

Put your aebleskiver pan on the stove to pre-heat. I use a glass top range, with the heat set to somewhere between 2 and 3.

Separate egg yolks from whites, putting whites into a steel mixing bowl. Whip with electric whisk until creamy white.

Combine egg yolks, flour, salt, baking soda, vanilla extract, buttermilk, and sugar in a different mixing bowl. The batter should be thick and moist.

Fold in the whipped egg whites, gently, without stirring too vigorously.

Stick a fork into your butter bar, and melt off about a teaspoon of butter into each cup of the aebleskiver pan. Don’t try to measure it exactly. If the heat is right, the butter will sizzle a bit. You will probably discover that the center cup gets hotter than the outer cups.

Fill each cup with some batter. Let it cook about 40 seconds, then turn it over. For turning, I choose something convenient: a chopstick, or a wooden skewer, or a popsicle stick, or a crochet hook.

If you’re trying to achieve perfectly round pancake balls, you will have to turn them several times. I get about four rounds of aebleskivers from this recipe, which is enough to feed three average adults.

My family likes dipping them into real maple syrup. I enjoy them with a smear of marionberry jam, or huckleberry jam.

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Sourdough Garlic Aebleskivers

Garlic Butter Ingredients:

Salted butter — 1 bar.

Fresh garlic cloves — 6 or 8.

Fresh chopped parsley — 1 Tablespoon.

Dried chopped basil — 2 teaspoons.

Sea salt — 1/2 teaspoon.

Batter Ingredients:

Sourdough starter — 1+1/2 Cup.

All-purpose flour — 1 Cup.

Salt — 1/2 teaspoon.

Cane sugar — 1 teaspoon.

Baking soda — 1/2 teaspoon.

Egg whites — 2.

Low-fat cow milk — 1/2 Cup.

This recipe is essentially a quick bread. It is not meant to be dipped in syrup. It has less sugar and no vanilla. It’s pretty much my own invention, unlike any aebleskiver recipe I’ve ever used before. The only thing that comes to mind with a similar taste is an artisan savory herb bread, like rosemary basil focaccia.

Make your garlic butter well in advance. Begin by putting your butter into a glass bowl, and place the bowl on a warm cooktop until the butter gets soft.

Peel and crush your garlic cloves, and put into the butter. Measure in salt, chopped parsley and basil, and stir well. Set aside.

People have a wide variety of preferences, with garlic. If you don’t care for the flavor, smell, or texture of garlic, you can leave it out. Substitute plain salted butter, or you might try using a garlic-infused olive oil.

I suggest you make an extra bottle of sourdough starter, so you won’t have to prepare a new batch every time you cook.

Use a medium mixing bowl for the batter. Measure sourdough starter, milk, and egg whites into the bowl. Use a large rubber spatula to stir it well, making sure any lumps are worked out. Measure the dry ingredients into the bowl. Stir everything carefully, scraping the edges and bottom, so no lumps stick to the bowl.

Warm your aebleskiver pan on the stove. I use a heat setting of 2 on my glass top stove. Use a butter knife to scoop a pat of garlic butter into each cup. Immediately pour batter into the cups, and cook for at least 1 minute before turning.

Do not turn these too early, as you won’t achieve a crispy crust.