Ebel-whu?! Whatever, they taste great. (2024)

February 16, 2015 by Homestead Lady 15 Comments

This is a plug for family traditions. We’re not Catholic but we love the humble holiday of Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday). We pull out all our pancake recipes and heat up our favorite pancake maker – the cast iron Ebelskiver pan! Bonus, we’re including a sourdough Ebelskiver recipe…

If homemade foods, holiday traditions and fun things to do with your family are on your To-Do list this season, please sign up to be the first to know about our newest book, Homestead Holidays! This soon-to-be-released book will take you all around the calendar year on the homestead with traditions from around the world, recipes, crafts and so much more. Presented on three different levels of holiday commitment, you can choose to just try our suggestions, or follow the instructions for an all-out celebration! Subscribers will get special coupons, freebies and offers as we near release of the book. We hope this book will be a blessing and a tool as you grow closer on your homestead. Join us today!

What is Pancake Day?

I like any holiday that’s so simple all you have to do is become a pancake maker to celebrate it. Pancake Day is traditionally a Catholic holiday (although other Christian sects observe it). It’s celebrated right before Lent when eggs and fats are forbidden as part of an introspective spiritual observance of the time before Easter. In order to prevent their going to waste, those ingredients are used up making pancakes for dinner. What genius!

Pretty much every culture on earth has some kind of pancake – injera, crepes, tortillas, naan – it’s all just a pancake of sorts. And I love. every. single. one.

A Pancake Maker New to Us

We were introduced to a new-to-us kind of pancake maker this year in the form of an Ebelskiver, a very traditional Danish pancake. Using a pan with small wells all around it, you make these with basic pancake ingredients although you add egg whites for creating the traditional poof.

You can find the Ebelskiver pan here.

There are scores of recipes on the web and we even found this little cookbook.

In order to ease the use of grain on our tummies, we sourdoughed our batter and it worked wonderfully. Culturing our batters and dough with sourdough has brought such healing to our family – grateful for those happy, little yeasts and bacteria! Here’s our favorite sourdough cookbook.

Here’s a little tip from an intrepid reader – thank you, Lisa!

“A little fun fact from me, a Danish gal: the correct spelling for these is Æbleskiver, and this word is already plural. There is no need to add an “s” to the end.”

Why you Need an Ebelskiver Pan

This Ebelskiver pan is truly a magical pancake maker and gives these pancakes their distinct shape. Plus, using cast iron ensures an even bake and uniform results. Don’t worry if it takes you some time to make friends with your cast iron – it will be worth it. Here’s a pan similar to what I’m using:

To make an Ebelskiver in the pan:

1. Fill the wells of the hot, buttered pan with batter.
2. Then, wait for the pancakes to bubble and turn them over with bamboo skewers (trying hard not to crush them).
3. After a few more minutes of pan baking time, you have this wickedly tasty little pancake poof.
4. My son and I have done several experiments since Christmas (when we got the pan) and are getting pretty good at it. We always seem to burn the first batch regardless of what we try, though. My favorite part about making these isn’t eating them, it’s chatting with him while we make them and watching him gain a new skill.
5. It’s extra decadent when you fill them with something like apple pie filling or chocolate chips. Even the ones you completely deform as you learn your new skill will taste divine.

Sourdough Ebelskiver Recipe

Here’s a basic recipe but feel free to fiddle around with it to find a variation you love. With any sourdough, your batter is going to need to time to culture. So, plan to set up your batter the night before and let it culture on your counter, finishing up in the morning.

Parting Advice

If you don’t want to use sourdough for this recipe, try this whole grain recipe that uses cultured dairy.

Here’s a coconut flour recipe. And a gluten free recipe.

I encourage you to pick up one new tradition this year to try out with your family. I’m a big believer in the power of wholesome traditions in families; as you can read about here and here.

Maybe Pancake Day should be the one you try first…?

Free Sample

Don’t forget to email me for that free sample from The Do It Yourself Homestead! We hope the book will be useful to you, but don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what cookbook author and whole foodie Stacy Lynn Harris has to say about it:

Cover graphic gratefully attributed to this Wikimedia Commons user.