Vanilla Cognac Aebleskiver

Dorothy's sentiment, "There's no place like home!" is so very appropriate for us. We've been traveling quite a bit off and on for the last year. It always takes a little bit to get adjusted to being back home and not living out of a suitcase.

For the last two months, we've been in Florida helping my Dad care for my Mom who had a stroke in late October. I took over from my brother who went down when she was released from the hospital. He spent a month helping them with all aspects of their life and the logistics of physical and speech therapy and traveling to her various doctor's. When we arrived, I took over the running of the house and let my dad focus on her care, while together we negotiated the changes in her diet directed by her doctor (diabetes and GERD).

Her prognosis is wonderful. The doctor's were able to get to her within 20 minutes of the onset of the stroke and give her the stroke drug. Her neurologist believes that she will be back to her normal self at around six months from her stroke.

Our family and friends were absolutely fabulous and banded together to help us out. So many stopped by to sit and visit, drop off Christmas goodies or part of their citrus harvest (Meyer lemons, kumquats, naval oranges and grapefruit) and to give us a sholder to lean on.

Leaving them and coming back home was bittersweet, as we were torn between wanting stay and help and the need to get back to our home, however the shock of returning to a New York winter has us shivering in our shoes.

While getting settled back into the house we had an interesting discovery, every severe cold snap a mouse takes up residence and this one had a taste for fine chocolate. This mouse managed to find it's way upstairs into the kitchen pantry and was working it's way through a 1/2 pound block of bittersweet Callebaut chocolate. Obviously a mouse of discerning taste, it left all the other items in the pantry alone.

As you can guess that started me on a frantic cleaning frenzy and a purging of the pantry (just in case). While my husband donned his hunter persona and started stalking his wily rodent prey. A hunt that while successful, seems to be never ending as the temperatures drop at night making the little furry fellows seek out the warmth of our home.

With freshly washed and scalded cookware, I have started cooking and baking again. After reseasoning my aebleskiver pan, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bake up several batches of these delightful and poppable breakfast delights.

This version is a bit sweeter than my version filled with spiced apples, and has the added richness of flavor from a Madagascar vanilla bean flavored French cognac. Needless to say, these didn't last long as my son tended to grab them by the handful and eat them like candy.

Recipe

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup chestnut flour
3 Tb sweet rice flour
2 tsp chia seed meal *
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tb agave syrup
3 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup almond milk, soured with 1 Tb + 1/4 tsp vinegar
1 Tb vanilla cognac
5 egg whites

Batter

1. In a medium bowl, dump in the flours, chia seed meal, soda, baking powder, salt and stir together.

2. In another medium bowl, pour in the agave syrup, egg yolks, cognac and soured almond milk. Then stir the ingredients together.

3. Pour the liquid ingredients in to the dry ingredients and stir together. Set aside while you beat the egg whites.

4. Plop the egg whites in to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat the egg whites on high speed until it forms firm peaks. Fold the egg whites in to the aebleskiver batter until blended.

5. Preheat the aebleskiver pan and then grease the cups with oil. Pour 3 Tb of batter into the bottom of each cup and cook for 4 minutes.

6. Use bamboo skewers to flip each pancake upside down and cook another 2 minutes. Remove the aebleskivers from the pan and set on a plate to cool. Makes 18 aebleskiver. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with warm syrup and jams, jellies or curds.

* Substitutions: You can substitute 2 tsp flax seed meal or 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum for the chia seed meal.