New Mixer and Ebelskiver 9/18/10

I finally took the plunge recently and made a few purchases that I had been wanting to make for a long time.  I am now the proud owner of a shiny new KitchenAid stand mixer.  I have coveted one of these literally for years.  Here it is in all of its majesty:





My other purchase was made at Williams-Sonoma.  Here is the ebelskiver pan:



For those not acquainted with the ebelskiver, it is basically a pancake filled with deliciousness.  The shape of the pan allows one to pour a bit of batter in, add the filling, add a little more batter, and then flip the concoction over.  The result is a filled cake that is delicious and amazing.  Kind of like a takoyaki pan if you know what the hell takoyaki is.



For my first foray into ebelskiver-making, in the interest of ease, I chose to go with the Williams-Sonoma pancake mix and to fill the cakes with Nutella.  Because how can you go wrong with Nutella? 

I almost immediately regretted purchasing the pancake mix.  It was expensive and, as you can see below, the canister comes filled only approximately half-way with mix.  This ended up being enough mix for three batches.



Here's the new mixer being put to use for the first time:



Isn't it just beautiful?  The prepared batter:



Here is the new pan adorned with tiny slivers of butter to keep things non-stick.  After the first batch, I decided to give the buttering a miss and just use a cooking spray instead.



Taking pictures this time around was pretty tricky since the cakes cook a lot quicker than the directions specify.  My entire first batch was horribly burned and the filling was leaking out of the sides.



The directions on the can state that the cakes need to cook for 3-5 minutes before turning.  After some experimenting, I have determined that the people who wrote those instructions are obviously dumb-asses.  This was after just two minutes, and you can already see caramelization (a.k.a. burning) at the edges of the cakes.



This was the third pan-full, which ended up being the best looking of the batch.  The cakes are still pretty over-cooked.




But even though the outsides weren't great looking, the insides were fantastic.  The cake was fluffy and sweet and the Nutella complemented the cake like a champion.



After my first experiment, I decided to change things up and go for savory instead of sweet.  This time, I filled the cakes with cubes of sharp cheddar cheese.



The second round of cooking was much cleaner and easier than the first.  I got the cook time down to about 1.5 minutes per side over medium-low heat.  The cheese looks pretty weird here:



And here is the melted-goodness of the finished product.  I cubed up a whole pound of cheese for this batch and I had quite a bit left over.  Those leftovers disappeared under mysterious circumstances.  Into my face.



I pulled out the burnt cakes and ate those first.  They were still pretty good!  Here are their more-presentable bretheren:



Unfortunately, the Williams-Sonoma pancake mix is really only suited for a sweet filling.  The cake was just too sweet for the cheese in my second batch.  In the future, I'm going to do a little more experimenting with the batter to see if I can get something that will match a savory filling.

Other fillings that I want to try:

• Jam
• Ham
• Ham and cheese
• Apples
• Pumpkin
• Chicken
• Octopus
• Carmelized onions
• Red bean paste

I've been baking a lot more lately.  Three deserts in just the past week.  Come back next week for more cake!