Danish Aebelskiver

Full Aebelskiver pan and sugar dish waiting to receive them.

A close childhood friend introduced me to one of the best breakfast foods ever. We would have Friday night sleepovers at his house and in the morning while we watched cartoons his mom would make, what I called, ball pancakes. I couldn't stop talking about them when I went home and persuaded my mom to get the recipe from his mom.

Well, unfortunately making this treat requires more than just the recipe. The pan is one of a kind. Heavy cast iron with seven hemi-sphere wells or cavities. Long story short my mom bought one and started making them. They eventually ended up becoming a Christmas time regular at our home. My mom gave me an Aebelskiver pan this year and so for Christmas Eve I have instituted the Aebelskiver brunch, which I plan to make a running tradition. The recipe is below, and as I studied the recipe more closely, my childhood description holds true they are basically fancy pancakes. I added a few other seasonings to spruce them up a bit.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 Cups buttermilk (can be milk w/ lemon juice)
• 3 Eggs - Separated
• 1 teaspoon Cardamom (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar or White Sugar (Depends on what you prefer)

Steps & Notes:

1. Mix dry ingredients: Put together the flour, salt, baking soda, and seasonings
2. Add buttermilk & Yolks: Mix these together well. Keep the Egg whites out for next step.
3. Beat egg whites: Beat the egg whites until fluffy
4. Add whites: Gently mix in the fluffy egg whites into the rest of the batter.
5. Cook one side: Grease the pan however you like, butter, oil, spray. Fill each cavity 3/4 or mostly full. Let cook for a minute or two over a medium to low heat.
6. (Optional): Add some filling. You can put fruit, jam, or other items in the middle before flipping it over. If you are putting something runny in the middle to should only half fill the cavity, add the filling, then finish filling the pan. This way it get's baked in and won't spill when you roll it over.
7. Cook second side:Roll over with fork or other utensil ( I use chop sticks) and let it cook another minute or two.
8. Add sugar topping: Remove and sprinkle with sugar. 
9. Eat warm.

Good for all ages. My son really liked them, don't let the face fool you.

Result:

• 5 stars!
• Fairly easy and straight forward recipe. Like pancakes, waffles, and eggs, this one is hard to really screw up.
• My wife and I both prefer normal granulated sugar on the top over powdered sugar. And I would really recommend eating them warm.

Possible Improvements:

• Try blending cream cheese and sugar together and use that for a filling. (That was my wife's idea, but I really like it)
• Try a mix of other spices in the batter, could make it more seasonal with spices similar to what is used in pumpkin pie.

Yogurt 1st Attempt

Small Container Results

I tried making my own yogurt for the first time this past weekend. Below is my log on the endeavor:

Ingredients:
Milk:

• Amount: 1/2 Gallon
• Brand: Costco's Kirtland whole milk. 
• Other facts: Homogenized, no rBST, Pasteurized, with Vitamin D3 added

Yogurt Starter:

• Amount: 1/2 Cup
• Brand: Old Home All Natural Plain Yogurt (Local MN yogurt)
• Ingredients: Cultured pasteurized grade A milk & Nonfat milk
• Other Facts: Live & Active cultures (Acidophilus & Bifidus)

Equipment:

• Digital Thermometer
• Plastic Gladware (sterilized the best I could) I used one large 7 cup container and five 1/2 cup containers.
• Stainless steel pots

Incubator Used:

• Cooler. There are many options I've learned, of which I can write about later. For this round I kept it simple.

Steps & Notes:

I followed the directions of Professor David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D. My measurements and temperatures went something like this.

1. Heat Milk: I warmed the milk to ~ 188 degrees Fahrenheit. I did this very slowly. I have an electric stove top and I set it to about 5 out of 10. I didn't want to burn the milk or boil it. This gave me time to think and prepare as it warmed up. It did take a little while, maybe 20 minutes.
2. Cool Milk: You want the temperature to come down to ~ 128 degrees Fahrenheit. I removed my milk from the heat right after it reached 188 degrees and let it cool standing alone. This was going too slow, so I filled up the sink with cold water and dipped the pot in the water. This cooled it off a little too much so I had to re-heat a bit.
3. Stir in Starter: I stirred in my 1/2 cup of starter right into the pot when the temperature was at ~130 degrees Fahrenheit, probably on the hot side. Some people recommend mixing it into a smaller portion of milk, then adding it to the overall batch. I stirred it in pretty well, but when I poured it out, there seemed to be a lot of undissolved yogurt starter still. 
4.  Pour into containers: Not much to note here. Some yogurt starter didn't seem to be mixed in all the way. It might have been from some burning, as there seemed to be a little milk sticking to the bottom of the pot.
5. Incubate: As mentioned I used a cooler with Hot water. It is recommended to fill with water to just below the rim of the containers. I had different sized containers and did some experimenting. The large 7 cup container had water to just below the lid. I put one small container in the water, I think it was floating/submerged. The other four were not in water at all, just sitting on top of the larger container.
6. Timing note: The time you are to let the yogurt sit varies. From the different recipes I've read appears to be a function of how warm the environment is and the ratio of yogurt starter to milk. Dr. Fankhauser suggests 3 hours for this ratio and incubation method. I finished around 8:30pm and wasn't awake at 11:30pm so it ended up sitting until about 3:30am. I'm not sure what difference the time makes.

Results:

Large Container Results

• It worked! The yogurt 'gelled' pretty well.
• Taste: Mild tartness
• Consistency: Delicate. A little fragile. It wasn't as smooth as I would like and you could describe parts as somewhat curdlely (not in a bad way).
• Rating: 3 1/2 start out of 5

Possible Improvements:

• Try using glass containers that seal better. (Most people recommend these, I still haven't found any yet)
• Mix in some powdered milk w/milk before heating. This is supposed to thicken the consistency more
• Try a different incubator method.
• Mix starter better
• Try just 3 hours.