Friday, July 23, 2010

Ebelskiver or Poffertjes?



Nadia writes:
We found a cast iron pan at a market in Red Hook two years ago. I always wondered what it was, and then saw the Danish filled-pancake pan in a Williams-Sonoma catalogue, and realised it was for making Ebelskiver, a kind of baked donut you make on the stove top. Although ours has hearts, it's the same size and has the same seven deep wells. This was exciting, I researched the recipes and had a lot of fun experimenting with fillings (fruit, chocolate, nutella)......but, at the end of the day, they were all too 'doughy'. The light, whipped egg white texture was wonderful, but the taste wasn't quite right.

So, seeing as we're a Dutch house, I tried Poffertjes, a traditional Dutch meal. The authentic pans for Poffertjes have smaller wells and more of them, but I decided my pan would do just fine. They're a yeasted buckwheat pancake mix, traditionally served with strawberries and whipped cream, and dusted with powdered sugar. No filling, just very puffy. They taste really good. And today I wondered, do I dare make Poffertjes with a filling.....?

........After a hard evening's recipe testing, Sam and I can confirm that Poffertjes do indeed work with fillings, specifically, two Ghirardelli's 60% bittersweet chocolate drops. We think we might have next Valentine's Day breakfast sorted. It will, of course, take much more recipe testing between now and then to get it just right........

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where in Red Hook? My family has a tradition of making ebelskivers on New Year's Day, and that pan is ADORABLE!

Sam and Nadia Scoggins said...

It was a chance find, I think it was the Spring Apple Blossom festival, just a stall outside someone's house.
A good place to search for cast iron pans is the flea market in Woodstock.
Enjoy your Ebelskivers and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I'm from Denmark and just want to you let you know that you don't put the filling like marmalade/jam/nutella/.. in it, but you dip it in it after they are baked :)
Anyway. I LOVE this pan! Do it have a name on it? I really wanna find it or one like it!!

All the best, Ida

Sam and Nadia Scoggins said...

Sorry Ida, it was just a chance find and I can't find a name written on it anywhere!