Ebelskivers!

"Ebel... what?" you're asking.

They're like a combination of pancakes and filled donut holes. They're filled pancakes! And I heart them.

My mom used to make these when we were kids. I keep seeing pans for sale at Williams and Sonoma but I've never had the heart to buy one just to make one dish. But over Memorial Day weekend, they were half off, so I finally scored one!

Here's a pretty basic recipe for these little pancakes. This recipe makes about 30. What you need:

2 egg whites 

2 cups flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 tablespoon sugar 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 egg yolks 

4 tablespoons butter, melted 

2 cups buttermilk 

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites (hand mixer is good!) until they can hold a stiff peak. 

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites last. Doesn't that look pretty all 

together?

Spray the pan with some Pam and heat over medium. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each cup, if you're not doing filling. If you're doing filling, put 1 tablespoon batter and than 1 tsp filling and then the other tablespoon of batter. Try not to let the filling touch the pan or it'll burn.

Little bubbles start forming on the surface of the pancake - that means it's time to flip! You can use pretty much anything, but we use a large toothpick. I heard skewers and knitting needles work just as well. Push one edge of the ebelskiver and it'll start to roll over. You may have to use your fingers.

That's it! Eat up. Hans likes to dip his in syrup... I like mine sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Oh, and these beauties were filled with orange curd. And it's heavenly. Truly.

I found this recipe from Simple Bites. I  have never made curd before. The instructions on this blog didn't work for me. Probably my fault - i don't have a stainless steel bowl and so I used a glass one and I don't think it could get hot enough. 

But I digress. Here's what you need:

2 large navel oranges, zested and juiced

1 1/4 cups sugar 

1 teaspoon ground cardamom 

4 egg yolks 

2 whole eggs 

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 

In a small bowl, mix together the zest, sugar and cardamom. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs (yolk and whole) and whisk well. Add the zest mixture and orange juice and stir to combine. At this point, you can go the double boiler method and add the butter. You're supposed to stir for 10 minutes for the curd to thicken. This didn't work for me, even after 30 minutes. I got frustrated and threw it in my fondue pot. Bam! That worked. 

And then you have filled yumminess. Try one - or both - of these recipes! So tasty.