Lodge Pro-Logic Cast-Iron Aebleskiver Pan
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List Price: Our Price: $26.31 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Lodge Pro-Logic Cast-Iron Aebleskiver Pan
Customer Review: Very Nicely-Built Aebleskiver Pan
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been cooking aebleskivers for several years in an excellent no-name cast iron pan that I bought in Solvang ten years ago. It is very well broken in with a smooth non-stick patina in all seven indents. I want to teach my sons how to cook aebleskivers themselves because they will be out on their own soon, and it never hurts to be able to attract a woman who loves Danish delicacies!
Therefore, I have been looking to buy some additional aebleskiver pans and I was excited to see this new pan from Lodge, so I ordered one to give it a try. I like the design a lot and am impressed with how it heats up quickly and holds it's temperature nicely. The first batch of aebleskivers had some sticking, but I expected that. I will need to use it a lot more before it has the same non-stick surfaces as my old pan (no, it's not for sale!), but I can tell that this pan will get there with use.
By the way, I've found that there are many recipes for aebleskivers and several different techniques for cooking them. I'm sure that they all will work well with some practice, but I'll describe the one that I've settled on, because it is so easy:
Heat the pan at a medium-low setting. Take about two cups of prepared pancake mix (I use Krusteaz Buttermilk) and add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Mix it in and stir in enough cold water to make the consistency about the same as you would for drop bisquits. Don't overmix it and let it sit for awhile to rise a bit before you cook it. Put a little butter or margerine in each indent and add about a teaspoonful of batter to each indent (If you're new to aebleskivers, I recommend trying only three at once.) I then drizzle a little butter on the edges of each indent. After about a minute, I use a knitting needle (or chopstick) to turn each aebleskiver one quarter turn. I add a little more butter and then turn them so the round side is up. I keep turning them with a spoon until they're done. (You'll just have to break one of them open to check, because it's dependent on your batter and temperature.)
Once you get it down (usually after a few rejects), serve them in threes on a small plate with thinned out raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Once you eat them, you'll understand why people go through all this just to make a pancake that looks like a racquetball!
Customer Review: Pan works great!
Summary: 5 Stars
The pre-seasoning of this pan really does work! It gives you about a year or two head start on the seasoning. My first use, I just brushed the wells of the hot pan with butter and put the batter in. No sticking at all. The price on Amazon is great, too!
Ingredients
○ 2 cups all-purpose flour
○ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
○ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
○ 2 eggs, separated
○ 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
○ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (more melted butter to brush in the pan)
○ cardamom or cinnamon to taste (optional)
Directions
a. Put the aebleskiver pan on a medium-to-high heat.
b. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Whisk the egg yolks with the buttermilk and melted butter in a separate bowl.
c. Beat the egg whites until they just hold a 2-inch peak. (don't over beat.)
d. Add the liquid buttermilk-butter-yolk mixture to the dry ingredients in a slow, steady stream while gently mixing with a rubber spatula. You should still have large patches of dry ingredients by the time you finish, this is more wetting of the batter than mixing.
e. Fold in the egg whites, again with a light touch.
f. Brush one of the hollows with some melted butter. Then take a small ladle or big spoon and fill the hollow not-quite-to-the-top with batter. Depending on how hot your pan is, you may need to add batter quickly so the butter doesn't hit its smoke point. Fill the other hollows the same way.
g. By the time you've finished filling the last hollow, the first one should be just about ready for turning. Take your knitting needle (or wooden skewer) poke it into the crust with your poker and pull upward. The idea is to pull the semi-spherical shell up out of the hollow. Push it so it caps off the hollow, allowing the uncooked dough from the center of the shell to fall into the hollow. Repeat for the other hollows.
h. Now it's just about turning the balls every now and then to give them an even heat. Remove from pan when a toothpick comes out clean, usually about 5 or 6 minutes. The aebleskiver should be brown (not just tan).
i. Serve immediately with some thinned raspberry jam.
Customer Review: Great item
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw a show on Food Network featuring aebelskivers and had to have some, so I did some research on pans and prices and concluded that this was the right material, cast iron, the right price, and it would be delivered, not lugged home by me, which is a consideration in Manhattan. The pan does a fine job. It cooks the ebelskivers without burning or over browning them, cleans easily and came pre-seasoned.
As for the aebelskivers, I did have trouble finding a good recipe.Many are available online, but the one I chose from William-Sonoma was a lot of work, with beating egg whites separately, and in a small city apartment every extra step takes a great deal of room which I can't spare. I found the finished product to be way too eggy and the recipe made far too many for my needs. I tried again, using my usual pancake recipe. It was easy to have my griddle on the stove to make pancakes for those who preferred them and aebelskivers cooking at the same time, using the same batter. As for cooking them, the Youtube postings of how to cook aebelskivers, plus the Food Network episode were both useful. I did find that the whole process is easier if once the butter is put in the little hollows, it is then brushed around the whole hollow so there is no sticking. Secondly, after all are cooked I put more butter in the little hollows, and put each puff in the pan a second time,for a good coating with butter and a little crisping. As far as my gang are concerned, that made a huge difference. They were tastier by far due to the extra butter, and the bit of crisping made them seem less like just a round pancake. Not the low calorie, heart-healthy option, but once in a while I pull out all the stops.
Customer Review: I love this pan. Makes perfect Aebelskiver, Vegetable Koftas & More
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this pan for over a year and love it. Even though it came pre-seasoned, I seasoned it once more before I used it for the first time. I had perfect aebelskivers on my first try.
I make aebelskivers with apples. This recipe makes exactly 14 large balls. I make them from the scratch using 1 cup unbleached flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1 egg, and 1 peeled, chopped apple & 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, salt and sugar well. In a pan, saute the apples with a little butter on low heat, for two minutes. Sprinkle some cinnamon, mix well and remove from heat. Don't overcook the apples. Separate the egg white and whip it (I use a small magic bullet jar). Beat the egg yolk separately. Mix the egg yolk and buttermilk to the flour mixture, fold the eggwhites and mix just enough water to make a thick batter. Put a little butter in each well and heat the aebelskiver pan. When it's hot, reduce the heat to low and spoon in the batter into the wells, filling them to the brim. Cover thepan with a lid and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Turn it over using a fork, or chop sticks or a fondue fork. Cover and let it cook on the other side for another 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle powdered sugar and serve. If you don't like sugar, you can serve with honey, agave nectar or maple syrup.
I've tried varieties of cakes and cornbreads, and they come out perfect. I also use it to make mixed vegetable koftas to make Indian curries. I'm sure there are lot more uses for this pan.
I don't understand why some users have problems with this pan. It must be user error. It's perfect in my opinion.
Customer Review: It's a hit with the whole family!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Logic brand pan, because it was clear that the wells on this one are larger than many of the other brands except perhaps the Aunt Else 9-well pan.
I made the Williams-Sonoma batter recipe and chunked cold butter into 1/4" cubes. For each new batch of ebelskiver, we'd throw a butter chunk into each well, let it melt, then fill with batter. Instead of turning them completely over like a pancake, rotate the half-shell of cooked batter up 90 degrees, then sideways 90 degrees, then finally over so the original 'down' side is up on the top. They come out perfectly round, unlike many other pictures which are kind of "flattish round."
The Williams-Sonoma recipe was perfect; they are deliciously light and fluffy. (I did substitue milk + plus lemon juice + about 2 tbsp. heavy cream, as I didn't have 1.75 cup of buttermilk.) In spite of that, the consistency was perfect. We tried a number of variations with one recipe of batter: plain, choc chips in the middle, sprinkling the batter with cinnamon and chopped pecans before rotating (so the cin. and pecans ended up in the middle), spooning in a teaspoon of peach jam, etc. The only problem was when the jam leaked onto the pan, so do jam-filled ones last.
We used pancake syrup, powdered sugar, and whipped cream as toppings. All were good!! BTW, we figured each ebelskiver was probably about the equivalent of a 4 inch diameter pancake.
This is a WINNER--they rotated perfectly on the first try--no problems with sticking at all!!